




T* A 



• %<* *\r ♦ rf(\ «2 A, '<^»% < 










V «i ' •°* 








From photograph taken at 
Hawarden in 1892, the time 
of his fourth call to ihe 
premiership. 









OR THE 



OF 



^Tje oRfglji (honorable 'William iWari 




FOUR TIMES 

<Pn'me difinfster of England 



BY 



J^iohard oB, Gook, J). J). 

AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF SPURGEON 
ETC., ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 



PUBLISHERS' UNION 
1898 



T^A 



M-7:^ 



Copyright 1898 
R. B. COOK. 




JUL 18 

?A9r of OoVl 




TWO C 



JlIVED^ 



'^ V^3 



PREFAC; 



^%^^ILLIAM E. GlyADSTONE was cos- 
^k[ mopolitan. The Premier of the British 
Empire is ever a prominent personage, 
but he has stood above them all. For 
more than half a century he has been the 
active advocate of liberty, morality and religion, 
and of movements that had for their object 
the prosperity, advancement and happiness 
of men. In all this he has been upright, dis- 
interested and conscientious in word and deed, 
He has proved himself to be the world's 
champion of human rights. For these reasons 
he has endeared himself to all men wherever civ- 
ilization has advanced to enlighten and to ele- 
vate in this wide world. 

With the closing of the 19th century the 
world is approaching a crisis in which every na- 
tion is involved. F9r a time the map of the 



vi PREFACE 

world miglit as well be rolled up. Great ques- 
tions tliat liave agitated one or more nations 
have convulsed the whole earth because steam 
and electricity have annihilated time and space. 
Questions that have sprung up between England 
and Africa, France and Prussia, China and Jap- 
an, Russia and China, Turkey and Armenia, 
Greece and Turkey, Spain and America have 
proved international and have moved all nations. 
The daily proceedings of Congress at Washing- 
ton are discussed in Japan. 

In these times of turning and overturning, 
of discontent and unrest, of greed and war, when 
the needs of the nations most demand men of 
world-wide renown, of great experience in gov- 
ernment and diplomacy, and of firm hold upon 
the confidence of the people ; such men as, for 
example, Gladstone, Salisbury, Bismark, Crispi 
and Li Hung Chang, who have led the mighty 
advance of civilization, are passing away. Upon 
younger men falls the heavy burden of the 
world, and the solution of the mighty problems 
of this climax of the most momentous of all 
centuries. 

However, the Record of these illustrious 
lives remains to us for guidance and inspi- 
ration. History is the biography of great men. 
The lamp of history is the beacon light of many 
lives. The biography of William E. Gladstone 



PREFACE ^m. 

is tlie history, not only of tlie English Parlia- 
ment, bnt of the t-he progress of civilization in 
the earth for the whole period of his pnblic life. 
With the life of Mr. Gladstone in his hand, the 
student of history or the young statesman has a 
light to guide him and to help him solve those 
intricate problems now perplexing the nations, 
and upon the right solution of which depends 
Christian civilization — the liberties, progress, 
prosperity and happiness of the human race. 
Hence, the life and public services of the 
Grand Old Man cannot fail to be of intense 
interest to all, particularly to the English, be- 
cause he has repeatedly occupied the highest 
position under the sovereign of Englaud. 
to the Irish whether Protestant or Catholic, north 
or south, because of his advocacy of (Reforms) 
for Ireland ; to the Scotch because of his Scottish 
descent; to the German because he reminds 
them of their own great chancellor, the Unifier 
of Germany, Prince Bismarck ; and to the 
American because he was ever the champion of 
freedom; and as there has been erected in 
Westminster Abbey a tablet to the memory of 
Lord Howe, so will the American people enshrine 
in their hearts, among the greatest of the great, 
the memory of William Ewart Gladstone. 



** In youth a student and in eld a sage ; 

Lover of freedom ; of mankind the friend ; 
Noble in aim from childhood to the end ; 
Great is thy mark upon historic page." 



fviii] 



List of Illustrations. 



Page 

William E. Gladstone Frontispiece. 

Gladstone Entering Palace Yaed, Westminstee 11 

Gladstone and Sister 19 

Interior of the Old House of Commons 38 

Birthplace of Gladstone 44 

Glimpses of Gladstone's Earlier Years 55 

Houses of Parliament 73 

Gladstone's London Eesidence 84 

Lobby of the House of Commons 91 

Grattan 122 

Kilmainham Jail 152 

Gladstone's Marriage at Hawarden 162 

No. 10 Downing Street, London 167 

The Park Gate, Hawarden 170 

Old Hawarden Castle 172 

Hawarden Castle, from the Park 174 

Waterfall in Hawarden Park 177 

Court Yard, Hawarden 180 

Gladstone Heading the Lessons at Hawarden Church, 183 

The Eev. H. Drew 185 

Dorothy's Dovecote • 186 

Dining-Eoom in the Orphanage 188 

Staircase in the Orphanage 189 

Hawarden Church 190 

Hawarden Castle 218 

Loyal Ulster 225 

Gladstone's Early English Contemporaries 235 

Gladstone's Later English Contemporaries 254 

Gladstone in Wales 261 

City and County Volunteers of Dublin 271 

Condition of Ireland, 1882 290 

Gladstone Visiting Neapolitan Prisons 296 

Gladstone Introducing His First Budget 307 

The Sunderland Shipowner Surprised 326 

(xiii.) 



xiv. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Family Group at Hawarden 343 

House op Commons 345 

"William the Conqueror 357 

Gladstone and Granddaughter 362 

Gladstone's Axe 368 

Gladstone Family Group 3T9 

Salisbury Ministry Defeated 398 

The Old Lion .'. 406 

Gladstone's Reception in the House of Commons 415 

Gladstone's Mail 422 

Release of Parnell, Dillon and O'Kelly 434 

Gladstone on His way Home 440 

The Midlothian Campaign 451 

Queen Victoria 458 

Gladstone and his Son, Herbert 467 

Gallery of the House of Commons 474 

Irish Leaders 478 

Irish Constabulary Evicting Tenants... 487 

Gladstone's Study at Hawarden 497 

Fourth Administration Cabinet 509 

Gladstone on the Queen's Yacht 514 

St, James Palace 519 

Queen and Premier 523 

Gladstone in His Study, Reading 529 

Mr. and Mrs« Gladstone, 1897 585 



INTRODUCTORY. 

There are few, even among those who differed 
from him, who would deny to Mr. Gladstone the title 
of a great statesman ; and in order to appreciate his 
wonderful career, it is necessary to realize the 
condition of the world of thought, manners and works 
at the time when he entered public life. 

In medicine there was no chloroform; in art the 
sun had not been enlisted in portraiture ; railways 
were just struggling into existence; the electric tele- 
graph was unknown; gas was an unfashionable light; 
postage was dear, and newspapers were taxed. 

In literature, Scott had just died ; Carlyle was 
awaiting the publication of his first characteristic 
book; Tennyson was regarded as worthy of hope be- 
cause of his juvenile poems ; Macaulay was simply a 
brilliant young man who had written some stirring 
verse and splendid prose; the Brontes were school- 
girls; Thackeray was dreaming of becoming an artist; 
Dickens had not written a line of fiction ; Browning 
and George Eliot were yet to come. 

In theology, Newman was just emerging from 
evangelicalism ; Pusey was an Oxford tutor ; Samuel 
Wilberforce a village curate; Henry Manning a young 
graduate; and Darwin was commencing that series of 
investigations which revolutionized the popular con- 
ception of created things. 

Princess, afterwards Queen Victoria, was a girl of 
thirteen ; Cobden a young calico printer ; Bright a 
younger cotton spinner; Palmerston was regarded as a 

(XV) 



xvi INTRODUCTORY. 

man-about-town, and Disraeli as a brilliant and eccen- 
tric novelist with parliamentary ambition. The future 
Marquis of Salisbury and Prime Minister of Great 
Britain was an infant scarcely out of arms; Lord Rose- 
bery, (Mr. Gladstone's successor in the Liberal Pre- 
miersbip), Lord Spencer, Lord Herscbell, Mr. Jobn 
Morley, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, Mr. Asquith, Mr. 
Brice, Mr. Acland and Mr. Arnold Morley, or more 
than half the members of his latest cabinet remained 
to be born ; as did also the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. Bal- 
four and Mr. Chamberlain, among those who were his 
keenest opponents toward the end of his public career. 

At last the end of Mr. Gladstone's public life 
arrived, but it had been extended to an age greater than 
that at which any English statesman had ever con- 
ducted the government of his country. 

Of the significance of the life of this great man, 
it would be superfluous to speak. The story will sig- 
nally fail of its purpose if it does not carry its own 
moral with it. We can best conclude these introduct- 
ory remarks by applying to the subject of the follow- 
ing pages , some words which he applied a generation 
ago to others : 

In the sphere of common experience we see some human 
beings live and die, and furnish by their life no special lessons visible 
to man, but only that general teaching in elementary and simple 
forms which is derivable from every particle of human histories. 
Others there have been, who, from the times when their young lives 
first, as it were, peeped over the horizon, seemed at once to — 

" 'Flame in the forehead of the evening sky,' " 
— Whose lengthening years have been but one growing 
splendor, and who at last — 

" Leave a lofty name, 

A light, a landmark on the cliffs of fame.** 



CHAPTER I 
ANCESTRY AND BiRTH 

// y^LL history," says Emerson, "resolves 

^j(£ itself into the biographies of a few 

^10^^^!^ stout and earnest persons." These 

remarks find exemplification in the 

life of William Ewart Gladstone, of 

whom they are pre-eminently true. His recorded 

life, from the early period of his graduation to 

his fourth premiership, would embrace in every 

important respect not only the history of the 

British Empire, but very largely the international 

events of every nation of the world for more than 

half a century. 

William Ewart Gladstone, M. P., D. C. L., 
statesman, orator and scholar, was born December 
27, 1809, in Liverpool, England. The house in 
which he was born, number 62 Rodney Street, a 
commodious and imposing " double-fronted " 
dwelling of red brick, is still standing. In the 
neighborhood of the Rodney Street house, and 
a few years before or after the birth of William 
E, Gladstone, a number of distinguished persons 
(2) 17 



i8 



William E. Gladstone 



were born, among them William Roscoe, the 
writer and philanthropist, John Gibson, the 
sculptor. Doctor Bickersteth, the late Bishop of 
Ripon, Mrs. Hemans, the poetess, and Doctor 
James Martineau, Professor of Mental and Moral 
Philosophy in Manchester New College, and the 
brother of Harriet Martineau, the authoress. 

The Gladstone family, or Gledstanes, which 
was the original family name, was of Scottish 
origin. The derivation of the name is obvious 
enough to any one familiar with the ancestral 
home. A gled is a hawk, and that fierce and 
beautiful bird would have found its natural 
refuge among the stanes^ or rocks, of the craggy 
moorlands which surround the '^ fortalice of 
gledstanes." As far back as 1296 Herbert de 
Gledstane figures in the Ragman Roll as one of 
the lairds who swore fealty to Edward I. His 
descendants for generations held knightly rank, 
and bore their part in the adventurous life of the 
Border. The chief stock was settled at lyiberton, 
in the upper part of Clydesdale. It was a family 
of Scottish lairds, holding large estates in the 
sixteenth century. The estate dwindled, and in 
the beginning of the seventeenth century passed 
out of their hands, except the adjacent property of 
Authurshiel, which remained in their possession 
for a hundred years longer. A younger branch 
of the family — the son of the last of the Gledstanes 
of Arthurshiel — after many generations, came to 




ii!'a:::tl'i!lllli4!J]^L^^ 



k^ >sril-fflifi 



Ancestry and Birth 21 

dwell at Biggar, in Lanarkshire, where lie con- 
ducted the business of a " maltster," or grain 
merchant. 

Here, and at about this time, the name was 
changed to Gladstones, and a grandson of the 
maltster of Biggar, Thomas Gladstones, settled in 
Leith and there became a " corn-merchant." He 
was born at Mid Toftcombs, in 1732, and married 
Helen Neilson, of Springfield. His aptitude for 
business was so great that he was enabled to 
make ample provision for a large family of 
sixteen children. His son, John Gladstone, was 
the father of William E. Gladstone, the subject 
of our sketch. 

Some have ascribed to Mr. Gladstone an 
illustrious, even a royal ancestry, through his 
father's marriage. He met and married a lovely, 
cultured and pious woman of Dingwall, in 
Orkney, the daughter of Andrew Robertson, 
Provost of Dingwall, named Ann Robertson, 
whom the unimpeachable Sir Bernard Burke 
supplied with a pedigree from Henry IH, king of 
England, and Robert Bruce, of Bannockburn, 
king of Scotland, so that it is royal English and 
Scottish blood that runs in the veins of 
Mr. Gladstone. 

"This alleged illustrious pedigree," says 
E. B. Smith, in his elaborate work on William 
E. Gladstone, "is thus traced: Lady Jane 
Beaufort, who was a descendant of Henry III, 



22 WiLLiAA^ E. Gladstone 

married James I, of Scotland, who was a descend- 
ant of Bruce. From this alliance it is said that 
the steps can be followed clearly down to the 
father of Miss Robertson. A Scottish writer 
upon genealogy, also referring to this matter, 
states that Mr. Gladstone is descended on the 
mother's side from the ancient Mackenzie of 
Kintail, through whom is introduced the blood 
of the Bruce, of the ancient Kings of Man, and of 
the Lords of the Isles and Earls of Ross ; also 
from the Munros of Fowlis, and the Robertsons 
of Strowan a,nd Athole. What was of more 
consequence to the Gladstones of recent genera- 
tions, however, than royal blood, was the fact 
that by their energy and honorable enterprise 
they carved their own fortunes, and rose to 
positions of public esteem and eminence.'' It 
has been their pride that they sprang from the 
ranks of the middle classes, from which have 
come so many of the great men of England 
eminent in political and military life. 

In an address delivered at the Liverpool 
Collegiate Institute, December 21, 1872, Sir John 
Gladstone said : "I know not why the commerce 
of England should not have its old families rejoic- 
ing to be connected with commerce from genera- 
tion to generation. It has been so in other 
countries ; I trust it may be so in this country. 
I think it is a subject of sorrow, and almost of 
scandal, when those families who have either 



Ancestry and Birth 23 

acquired or recovered wealth and station througli 
commerce, turn their backs upon it and seem to 
be ashamed of it. It certainly is not so with my 
brother or with me. His sons are treading in 
his steps, and one of my sons, I rejoice to say, 
is treading in the steps of my father and my 
brother." 

George W. E. Russell, in his admirable 
biography of Mr. William E. Gladstone, says, "Sir 
John Gladstone was a pure Scotchman, a low- 
lander by birth and descent. Provost Robertson 
belonged to the Clan Donachie, and by this 
marriage the robust and business-like qualities of 
the Lowlander were blended with the poetic 
imagination, the sensibility and fire of the Gael." 

An interesting story is. told, showing how 
Sir John Gladstone, the father of William E- 
Gladstone, came to live in Liverpool, and enter 
upon his great business career, and where he 
became a merchant prince. Born at Leith in 
1 763, he in due time entered his father's business, 
where he served until he was twenty-one years 
old. At that time his father sent him to Liver- 
pool to dispose of a cargo of grain, belonging to 
him, which had arrived at that port. His 
demeanor and business qualities so impressed 
Mr. Corrie, a grain merchant of that place, that 
he urged his father to let him settle there. Con- 
sent was obtained and young Gladstone entered 
the house of Corrie & Company as a clerk. 



24 William e. Gladstone 

His tact and shrewdness were soon manifest, 
and he was eventually taken into the firm as a 
partner, and the name of the house hecame 
Corrie, Gladstone & Bradshaw. 

John Gladstone on one occasion proved the 
temporary preserver of the firm of which he 
had become a member. He was sent to America 
to buy grain for the firm, in a time of great 
scarcity in Europe, owing to the failure of the 
crops, but he found the condition of things the 
same in America. There was no grain to be 
had. While in great perplexity as to what to do 
he received advices from Liverpool that twenty- 
four vessels had been dispatched for the grq^n he 
was expected to purchase, to bring it to Europe. 
The prospect was that these vessels would have 
to return to Europe empty as they had come, and 
the house of Corrie & Company be involved 
thereby in ruin. It was then that John Gladstone 
rose to the emergency of the occasion, and by his 
enterprise and energy saved himself and partners 
from financial failure, to the great surprise and 
admiration of the merchants of Liverpool. It 
was in this way: He made a thorough exami- 
nation of the American markets for articles of 
commerce that could be sold in Europe to 
advantage, and filling his vessels with them sent 
them home. This sagacious movement not only 
saved his house, but gave him a name and place 
among the foremost merchants of his day. His 



Ancestry and Birth 25 

name was also a synonym for push and integrity, 
not only on the Liverpool exchange, but in 
London and throughout all England. The 
business of the firm became very great and the 
wealth of its members very large. 

During the war with Napoleon, on the conti- 
nent, and the war of 1 81 2 with the United States, 
the commerce of England, as mistress of the seas, 
was injured, and the Gladstone firm suffered 
greatly and was among the first to seek peace, for 
its own sake and in the interests of trade. In one 
year the commerce of Liverpool declined to the 
amount of 140,000 tons, which was about one- 
fourth of the entire trade, and there was a decrease 
of more than $100,000 in the dock-dues of that 
port. John Gladstone was among those who 
successfully petitioned the British government 
for a change of its suicidal policy towards the 
American States. 

After sixteen years of successful operations, 
during a part of which time it had been 
government agent, the firm was dissolved and 
its business was continued by John Gladstone. 
His six brothers having followed him from 
Leith to Liverpool, he took into partnership 
with him his brother Robert. Their business 
became very extensive, having a large trade with 
Russia, and as sugar importers and West India 
merchants. John Gladstone was the chairman 
of the West India Association and took an active 



26 William E. Gladstone 

part in the improvement and enlargement of the 
docks of Liverpool. In 1 8 1 4, when the monopoly 
of the East India Company was broken and the 
trade of India and China thrown open to compe- 
tition, the firm of John Gladstone & Company 
was the first to send a private vessel to .Calcutta. 

John Gladstone was a public-spirited man 
and took great interest in the welfare of his 
adopted city. He was ever ready to labor for its 
prosperity, and consequently endeared himself to 
the people of all classes and conditions, and of 
every shade of political opinion. 

The high estimation in which he was held by 
the citizens of Liverpool was especially manifest 
October 18, 1824, when they presented him with 
a testimonial, consisting of a magnificent service 
of plate, of twenty-eight pieces,, and bearing the 
following inscription: ^^ To John Gladstone^ 
Esq.^ M. P.^ this service of plate was presented 
MDCCCXXIV, by his fellow townsmen and 
friends^ to mark their high sense of his successful 
exertions for the promotion of trade and commerce ^ 
and in acknowledgment of his most important 
services re7idered to the town of Liverpool P 

John Gladstone, though devoted to commerce, 
had time for literary pursuits. He wrote a 
pamphlet, '' On the Present State of Slavery in 
the British West Indies and in the United States 
of America ; and on the Importation of Sugar 
from British Settlements in India." He also 



Ancestry and Birth. 27 

publisHed, in 1830, another pamphlet, containing 
a statement of facts connected with the same 
general snbject, ** in a letter addressed to Sir 
Robert Peel.'^ In 1846 he published a pamphlet, 
entitled " Plain facts intimately connected with 
the intended Repeal of the Corn Laws ; or 
Probable Effects on the Public Revenue and 
the Prosperity of the Country." 

From the subject discussed it can be readily 
and truly imagined that John Gladstone had 
given thought to political subjects. He was in 
favor of a qualified reform which, while affording 
a greater enfranchisement of the people, looked 
also to the interests of all. Having an opinion, 
and not being afraid to express it, he was fre- 
quently called upon to address public meetings. 
The matters discussed by him were, however, 
rather national than municipal, rather humane 
than partisan. He was a strong advocate for 
certain reforms at home in 1818, and in 1823 on 
the seas, and for Greek independence in 1824. 
" On the 14th of February, 1824, ^ public meet- 
ing was held in Liverpool Town Hall, * for the 
purpose of considering the best means of assisting 
the Greeks in their present important struggle 
for independence.' Mr. Gladstone spoke im- 
pressively in favor of the cause which had already 
evoked great enthusiasm amongst the people, and 
enlisted the sympathies and support of Lord 
Byron and other distinguished friends of freedom." 



William E. Gladstone 

It was in 1818 tHat lie addressed a meeting 
called " to consider the propriety of petitioning 
Parliament to take into consideration the pro- 
gressive and alarming increase in the crimes of 
forging and uttering forged Bank of England 
notes." The penalties for these crimes were 
already heavy, but their infliction did riot deter 
men from committing them, and these crimes 
increased at an enormous rate. Resolutions were 
passed at the Liverpool meeting, recommending 
the revision and amendment of existing laws. 

Then again, so late as the year 1823, ^^^ 
navigation between Liverpool and Dublin was 
in a lamentable condition, and human life was 
recklessly imperiled, and no one seemed willing 
to interfere and to interest himself in the in- 
terests of humanity. It was then that he again 
came to the front to advocate a just cause. To 
illustrate the dangers to vessels and passengers, 
the case of the sloop Alert may be cited. It was 
wrecked off the Welsh coast, with between 100 
and 140 persons on board, of whom only seven- 
teen were saved. For the safety and rescue of 
all those souls on board this packet-boat there 
was only one small shallop, twelve feet long. Mr. 
Gladstone was impressed with the terrible nature 
of the existing evil, and obtained an amendment 
to the Steamboat Act, requiring imperatively that 
every passenger vessel should be provided with 
boats sufficient for every passenger it was 



Ancestry and Birth 29 

licensed to carry. By this wise and liumane 
provision thousands of lives were doubtless saved 
that would otherwise have been lost — the victims 
of reckless seamanship and commercial greed. 

John Gladstone, either through the influence 
of Mr. Canning, or from having imbibed some 
political taste, sat in the House of Commons nine 
years, representing Lancaster in 1819, Wood- 
stock from 182 1 to 1826, and Berwick in 1827; 
but he never would consent to sit in Parliament 
for the city of Liverpool, for he thought that so 
large and important a constituency required 
peculiar representation such as he was unquali- 
fied to give. 

He was the warm supporter and intimate 
friend of the celebrated Canning. At first he 
was a Whig, but finally came to support Mr. 
Canning, and became a Liberal Conservative. 
In 181 2 he presided over a meeting at Liver- 
pool, which was called to invite Mr. Canning to 
represent the borough in Parliament. After the 
election the successful candidates were claimed 
and carried in procession through the streets. 
The procession finally halted at Mr. Gladstone's 
house, in Rodney Street, from the balcony of 
which Mr. Canning addressed the populace. His 
election laid the foundation of a deep and lasting 
friendship between Mr. Canning and Mr. Glad- 
stone. "At this time the son of the latter was 
but three years of age. Shortly afterwards — that 



30 William E. Gladstone 

is, as soon as lie was able to understand anything 
of public men, and public movements and events'' 
— says G. B. Smith, " the name of Canning 
began to exercise that strange fascination over the 
mind of William Ewart Gladstone which has 
never wholly passed away," and Mr. Gladstone 
himself acknowledged that he was brought up 
'^ under the shadow of the great name of 
Canning." 

John Gladstone presided at a farewell dinner 
given by the Liverpool Canning Club, in August, 
1822, in honor of Mr. Canning, who had been 
Governor-General of India. But Mr. Canning, 
instead of going to India, entered the British 
Cabinet, and in 1827 became Prime Minister, 
and John Gladstone moved a congratulatory 
address to the king upon the formation of the 
Canning Ministry. 

In 1845 John Gladstone was created a baro- 
net by Sir Robert Peel, but he lived to enjoy his 
deserved honors but a short time, for he died in 
1 85 1, at the advanced age of eighty-eight. His 
motto 'had ever been, '' Diligent in business." 
His enormous wealth enabled him to provide 
handsomely for his family, not only after death, 
but during his lifetime. 

At the time of his father's death, William E. 
Gladstone was still an adherent of the Tory 
party, yet his steps indicated that he was advanc- 
ing towards Liberalism ; and he had already 



Ancestry and Birth 31 

reached distinction as a statesman, both in Parlia- 
ment and in the Cabinet, while as yet he was but 
42 years old, which was about half of his age 
when called for the fourth time to be Prime 
Minister of England. 

Sir John Gladstone and his wife had six 
children — four sons, Thomas Gladstone, after- 
wards ' baronet ; John Gladstone, who became a 
captain, and died in 1863 5 Robert Gladstone, 
brought up a merchant, who died in ^Sy^^ and 
two daughters, Annie McKenzie Gladstone, who 
died years ago, and Helen Jane Gladstone. 
William E. Gladstone was the fourth son. 
The following is from the pen of the son, who 
says of his aged father. Sir John Gladstone : '' His 
eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated ; he 
was full of bodily and mental vigor ; whatsoever 
his hand found to do he did it with his might ; he 
could not understand or tolerate those who, per- 
ceiving an object to be good, did not at once and 
actively pursue it ; and with all this energy he 
gained a corresponding warmth, and, so to speak, 
eagerness of affection, a keen appreciation of 
humor, in which he found a rest, and an inde- 
scribable frankness and simplicity of character, 
which, crowning his other qualities, made him, I 
think, and I strive to think impartially, nearl}^ or 
quite the most interesting old man I ever knew." 

Personally, Sir John Gladstone was a man 
of much intelligence and of sterling principle, of 



32 William E. Gladstone 

high moral and religious character, and his house 
consequently was a model home. " His house 
was by all accounts a home pre-eminently cal- 
culated to mould the thoughts and direct the 
course of an intelligent and receptive nature. 
There was a father's masterful will and keen per- 
ception, the sweetness and piety of the mother, 
wealth with all its substantial advantages and few 
of its mischiefs, a strong sense of the value of 
money, a rigid avoidance of extravagance and 
excesses ; everywhere a strenuous purpose in 
life, constant employment, and concentrated 
ambition." 

Mrs. John Gladstone, the wife and mother, 
is described by one who knew her intimately as 
" a lady of very great accomplishments ; of fas- 
cinating manners, of commanding presence and 
high intellect; one to grace any home and 
endear any heart." 

The following picture of the everyday life of 
the family is interesting and instructive, on 
account of Sir John Gladstone, as well as on that 
of his more distinguished son, and is from the 
pen of an eye-witness : " Nothing was ever taken 
for granted between him and his sons. A suc- 
cession of arguments on great topics and small 
topics alike — arguments conducted with perfect 
good humor, but also with the most implicable 
logic — formed the staple of the family conversa- 
tion. The children and their parents argued 



Ancestry and Birth 33 

upon everytliing. They would debate as to 
whether a window should be opened, and whether 
it was likely to be fair or wet the next day. It 
was all perfectly good-humored, but curious to a 
stranger, because of the evident care which all the 
disputants took to advance no proposition, even 
as to the prospect of rain, rashly." 

In such a home as this was William E. 
Gladstone in training as the great Parliamentary 
debater and leader, and for the highest office 
under the British crown. This reminds us of a 
story of Burke» The king one day, unexpectedly 
entering the office of his minister, found the 
elder Burke sitting at his desk, with his eyes 
fixed upon his young son, who was standing on 
his father's desk in the attitude of speaking. 
" What are you doing ? " asked the astonished 
king. "I am making the greatest minister 
England ever saw," was the reply. And so in 
fact, and yet all unconsciously, was Sir John 
doing for his son, William. 

William E. Gladstone "was born," says his 
biographer, G. W. E. Russell, "at a critical 
moment in the fortunes of England, and of 
Europe. Abroad the greatest genius that the 
world has ever seen was wading through slaugh- 
ter to a universal throne, and no effectual resist- 
ance had as yet been offered to a progress which 
menaced the liberty of Europe and the existence 
of its States. At home, a crazy king and a 



34 William E, Gladstone 

profligate Heir-apparent presided over a social 
system in whicli all civil evils were harmoniously 
combined. A despotic administration was sup- 
ported by a parliamentary representation as 
corrupt as illusory ; a cburch, in wliicb spiritual 
religion was all but extinct, had sold herself as a 
bondslave to the governing classes, ^ank and 
wealth and territorial ascendency were divorced 
from public duty, and even learning had become 
the handmaid of tyranny. The sacred name 
of justice was prostituted to sanction a system 
of legal murder. Commercial enterprise was 
paralyzed by prohibitive legislation ; public credit 
was shaken to its base ; the prime necessaries of 
life were ruinously dear. The pangs of poverty 
were aggravated by the concurrent evils of war 
and famine, and the common people, fast bound 
in misery and iron, were powerless to make their 
sufferings known or to seek redress, except by the 
desperate methods of conspiracy and insurrection. 
None of the elements of revolution were wanting, 
and the fates seemed to be hurrying England 
to the brink of a civil catastrophe. 

" The general sense of insecurity and appre- 
hension, inseparable from such a condition of 
affairs, produced its effect upon even the robust 
minds. Sir John Gladstone was not a likely 
victim of panic, but he was a man with a large 
stake in the country, the more precious because 
acquired by his own exertion; he believed that 



" Ancestry and Birth 35 

the safeguards of property and order were im- 
perilled by foreign arms and domestic sedition ; 
and he had seen with indignation and disgust 
the excesses of a factious Whiggery, which was 
not ashamed to exult in the triumph of the 
French over the English Government. Under 
the pressure of these influences Sir John Glad- 
stone gradually separated himself from the 
Whigs, with whom in earlier life he had acted, 
and became the close ally of Canning, whose 
return for Liverpool he actually promoted." 

With such surroundings it is not to be 
wondered at that William E Gladstone entered 
political life a Tory, contending against the 
principles he afterwards espoused. His original 
bent, however, was not towards politics, but the 
church ; and it was only at the earnest desire of 
his father that he ultimately decided to enter 
Parliament, and serve his country in the 
Legislature. 

His subsequent life proved the wisdom of 
the choice. In the Legislature of his country was 
begun, carried on and consummated grandly, one 
of the most remarkable careers in the annals of 
history for versatility, brilliancy, solidity and 
long continuance: Rarely has there been ex- 
hibited so complete a combination of qualities in 
statesmanship. His intellectual endowments were 
almost without a parallel, and his achievements 
without a precedent. In him seemed to be 



36 William E. Gladstone 

centered a ricli collection of tlie highest gifts of 
genius, great learning and readiness in debate 
and discourse in the House of Commons, and 
extraordinary wisdom in the administration of 
the affairs of the nation. His financial talent, 
his business aptitude, his classical attainments, 
and above all his moral fervor, and religious spirit 
were conspicuous. Some men would have been 
contented with political power, or classical learn- 
ing, or literary distinction, but he excelled in all 
these — not only as a statesman, but as a man of 
letters and a classical scholar. Neither has held 
him exclusively as its own — he belongs to all, or 
rather they belong to him — for he explored and 
conquered them. His literary productions equal 
in merit his papers of State, while his knowledge 
of the classics would do credit to any scholar. 

He possessed the unusual quality of throw- 
ing the light of his own mind on the greatest 
questions of national and international import- 
ance, of bringing them down to the understand- 
ing and appreciation of the masses of the people, 
of infusing, by his earnestness, the fire of his own 
soul in the people, and of arousing in them the 
greatest enthusiasm. 

In the biography of this wonderful person 
we propose to set before the reader the man him- 
self — his words and his deeds. This method 
enables him to speak for himself, and thus the 
reader may study him and know him, and 




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Ancestry and Birth 39 

because thereof be lifted into a Higher plane of 
nobler and better being. The acts aud utterances 
of such a character are his best biography, and 
especially for one differing so largely from all 
other men as to have none to be compared with him. 

In this record we simply spread before the 
reader his private life and public services, con- 
nected together through many startling changes, 
from home to school, from university to Parlia- 
ment, from Tory follower to Liberal leader, from 
the early start in his political course to the grand 
consummation of the statesman's success in his 
attainment to the fourth Premiership of this 
Grand Old Man, and the glorious end of an 
eventful life. 

We could not do better, in closing this 
chapter, than to reproduce a part of the character 
sketch of William E. Gladstone, from the pen of 
William T. Stead, and published in the '^ Review 
of Reviews: " 

" So much has been written about Mr. Glad- 
stone that it was with some sinking of heart I 
ventured to select him as a subject for my next 
character sketch. But I took heart of grace when 
I remembered that the object of these sketches is 
to describe their subject as he appears to himself 
at his best, and his countrymen. There are plenty 
of other people ready to fill in the shadows. This 
paper claims in no way to be a critical estimate or 
a judicial summing up of the merits and demerits 



40 William E. Gladstone 

of the most remarkable of all living Englishmen. 
It is merely ^n attempt to catch, as it were, the 
outline of the heroic figure which has dominated 
English politics for the lifetime of this generation, 
and thereby to explain something of the fascina- 
tion which his personality has exercised and still 
exercises over the men and women of ^his time. 
If his enemies, and they are many, say that I 
have idealized a wily old opportunist out of all 
recognition, I answer that to the majority of his 
fellow-subjects my portrait is not overdrawn. 
The real Gladstone may be other than this, but 
this is probably more like the Gladstone for 
whom the electors believe they are voting, than 
a picture of Gladstone, ^ warts and all,' would be. 
And when I am abused, as I know I shall be, for 
printing such a sketch, I shall reply that there is 
at least one thing to be said in its favor. To 
those who know him best, in his own household, 
and to those who only know him as a great name 
in history, my sketch will only appear faulty 
because it does not do full j ustice to the character 
and genius of this extraordinary man. 

" Mr. Gladstone appeals to the men of to-day 
from the vantage point of extreme old age. Age is 
so frequently dotage, that when a veteran appears 
who preserves the heart of a boy and the happy 
audacity of youth, under the ' lyart haffets wear- 
ing thin and bare ' of aged manhood, it seems as 
if there is sortiething supernatural about it, and 



Ancestry and Birth 41 

all men feel the fascination and the charm. Mr. 
Gladstone, as he gleefully remarked the other 
day, has broken the record. He has outlived 
Lord Palmerston, who died when eighty-one, and 
Thiers, who only lived to be eighty. The blind 
old Dandolo in Byron's familiar verse — 

The octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe, 
had not more energy than the Liberal leader, 
who, now in his eighty-third year, has more 
nerve and spring and go than any of his lieuten- 
ants, not excluding the youngest recruit. There 
is something imposing and even sublime in the 
long procession of years which bridge as with 
eighty-two arches the abyss of past time, and 
carry us back to the days of Canning, and of 
Castlereagh, of Napoleon, and of Wellington, His 
parliamentary career extends over sixty years — 
the lifetime of two generations. He is the cus- 
todian of all the traditions, the hero of the 
experience of successive administrations, from a 
time dating back longer than most of his col- 
leagues can remember. For nearly forty years 
he has had a leading part in making or un- 
making of Cabinets; he has served his Queen 
and his country in almost every capacity in ofi&ce 
and in opposition, and yet to-day, despite his pro- 
longed sojourn in the malaria of political wire- 
pulling, his heart seems to be as the heart of a 
little child. If some who remember ^ the old 
Parliamentary hand ' should whisper that inno- 



42 William E. Gladstone 

cence of the dove is sometimes compatible with 
the wisdom of the serpent, I make no dissent. It 
is easy to be a dove, and to be as silly as a dove. It 
is easy to be as wise as a serpent, and as wicked, 
let us say, as Mr. Governor Hill or Lord Beacons- 
field. But it is the combination that is difficult, 
and in Mr. Gladstone the combination is almost 
ideally complete. 

^' Mr. Gladstone is old enough to be the 
grandfather of the younger race of politicians, but 
still his courage, his faith, his versatility, put the 
youngest of them to shame. It is this ebullience 
of youthful energy, this inexhaustible vitalit}^, 
which is the admiration and despair of his con- 
temporaries. Surely when a schoolboy at Eton 
he must somewhere have discovered the elixir of 
life, or have been bathed by some beneficent fairy 
in the well of perpetual youth. Gladly would 
many a man of fifty exchange physique with this 
hale and hearty octogenarian. Only in one 
respect does he show any trace of advancing years. 
His hearing is not quite so good as it was, but 
still it is far better than that of Cardinal Manning, 
who became very deaf in his closing years. 
Otherwise Mr. Gladstone is hale and hearty. 
His eye is not dim, neither is his natural force 
abated. A splendid physical frame, carefully'' 
preserved, gives every promise of a continuance 
of his green old age. 



Ancestry and Birth 45 

"His political opponents, who began this Par- 
liament by confidently calculating upon his death 
before the dissolution, are now beginning to admit 
that it is by no means improbable that Mr. Glad- 
stone may survive the century. Nor was it quite 
so fantastic as it appears at first sight, when an 
ingenious disciple told him the other day that by 
the fitness of things he ought to live for twenty 
years yet. ^ For,^ said this political arithmetician, 
* you have been twenty-six years a Tory, twenty- 
six years a Whig Liberal, and you have been 
only six years a Radical Home Ruler. To make 
the balance even you have twenty years still 
to serve.' 

" Sir Provo Wallis, the Admiral of the Fleet, 
who died the other day at the age of one 
hundred, had not a better constitution than 
Mr. Gladstone, nor had it been more carefully 
preserved in the rough and tumble of our naval 
war. If the man who smelt powder in the famous 
fight between the Chesapeake and the Shannon 
lived to read the reports of the preparations for 
the exhibition at Chicago, it is not so incredible 
that Mr. Gladstone may at least be in the foretop 
of the State at the dawn of the twentieth century. 

" The thought is enough to turn the Tories 
green with sickening despair, that the chances of 
his life, from a life insurance office point of view, 
are probably much better than Lord Salisbury's. 
But that is one of the attributes of Mr. Gladstone 



44 



William E. Gladstone 



whicli endear him so mucli to his party. He is 
always making his enemies sick with despairing 
jealousy. He is the great political evergreen, 
who seems, even in his political life, to have 
borrowed something of immortality from the 
fame which he has won. He has long been the 
Grand Old Man. If he lives much longer he 
bids fair to be known as the immortal old man in 
more senses than one." 




Gladstone's Birthplace, Rodney Street, Liverpool. 



CHAPTER II 
At Eton and Oxford 

>^Tf HERE is very little recorded of the 
▼ J boy Hood of some great men, and this is 
^^r true of the childhood of William E. 
Gladstone, until he leaves the parental 
home for school, which he does in 1 82 1 , 
at the early age of eleven. I^ was fortunate in 
his parentage, but no less so in his early associa- 
tions, both in and out of school. We refer par- 
ticularly to his private preceptors, two of whom, 
the venerable Archdeacon Jones and the Rev. 
William Rawson, first Vicar of Seaforth, a water- 
ing-place near Liverpool, were both men of high 
character and great ability. Mr. Gladstone 
always highly esteemed Mr. Rawson, his earliest 
preceptor, and visited him on his death-bed. 
Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, was 
for two years young Gladstone's private tutor, 
beginning his instruction when his pupil left 
Eton in 1827. 

Besides these associations of his early life 
there were Canning, a frequent visitor, as has 

45 



46 William E. Gladstone 

been mentioned, at Hs father's house, and 
Hannah More — " Holy Hannah," as Horace 
Walpole called her. She singled out " Billy " 
Gladstone for her especial pet out of the group 
of eleven children in whom her warm heart 
delighted, and it has been asked wonderingly if 
Miss More could preternaturally have lengthened 
her days until William E- Gladstone's present 
glory, whether she would have gone on dubbing 
him " Billy " in undignified brevity until the end. 
William E. Gladstone, when very young, 
gave such evidence of uncommon intellectual 
ability and promise of future greatness that his 
father resolved upon educating him in the best 
schools of Engl^(d. There are four or five great 
schools in England in which the English youth 
are prepared in four or five years for Cambridge or 
Oxford. '^ Eton, the largest and the most cele- 
brated of the public schools of England, ranks as 
the second in point of antiquity, Winchester alone 
being older." After the preparation at home, 
under private teachers, to which we have referred, 
William E. Gladstone was sent to Eton, in Sep- 
tember, 1821. His biographer, George W. E. 
Russell, writes, *' From a provincial town, 
from mercantile surroundings, from an atmos- 
phere of money-making, from a strictly 
regulated life, the impressible boy was trans- 
planted, at the age of eleven, to the shadow 
of Windsor and the banks of the Thames, to an 



At Eton and Oxford 4; 

institution wliicli belongs to history, to scenes 
haunted by the memory of the most illustrious 
Englishmen, to a free and independent existence 
among companions who were the very flower of 
English boyhood. A transition so violent and 
yet so delightful was bound to produce an im- 
pression which lapse of time was powerless to 
efface, and no one who knows the man and the 
school can wonder that for seventy years Mr. 
Gladstone has been the most enthusiastic of 
Etonians." 

Eton of to-day is not in all respects the Eton 
of three-quarters of a century ago, and yet in 
some particulars it is as it was when young 
" Billy " Gladstone studied within its walls. The 
system of education and discipline pursued has 
undergone some modifications in recent years — 
notably during the provostship of the Rev. Francis 
Hodgson ; but radical defects are still alleged 
against it. It is not remarkable, however, that 
every Eton boy becomes deeply attached to 
the school, notwithstanding the apprenticeship 
to hardships he may have been compelled to 
undergo. 

The " hardships '' there must have been 
particularly great when young Gladstone entered 
Eton, at the close of the summer holidays of 182 r. 
The school was under the head-mastership of 
*^ the terrific Dr. Keate." He was not the man 
to spare even the scholar who, upon the emphatic 



48 William E. Gladstone 

testimony of Sir Roderick Murcliisoti, was ■' tlie 
prettiest boy that ever went to Eton," and who 
was as studious and well-behaved as he was 
good-looking. 

The town of Eton, in which the school is 
located, about 22 miles from London, in Berk- 
shire, is beautifully situated on the' banks of 
the river Thames, opposite Windsor Castle, the 
residence of the Queen of England. 

Eton College is one of the most famous and 
best endowed educational institutions of learning 
in England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry 
VI. The king was very solicitous that the work 
should be of a durable kind, and he provided for 
free scholarships. Eton of Mr. Gladstone's day, 
according to a critic, was divided into two schools 
— the upper and the lower. It also had two kinds 
of scholars, namely, seventy called king's scholars 
or " collegers," who are maintained gratuitously, 
sleep in the college, and wear a peculiar dress ; 
and another class — the majority — called ^' oppi- 
dans," who live in the town. Between these two 
classes of students there prevails perpetual 
hostility. At Cambridge, there was founded, in 
connection with Eton, what is called King's 
College, to receive as fellows students from Eton, 
and to give them gratuitously an education. The 
ground on which students of Eton were promoted '^ 
to King's College and these fellowships was, 
strangely to say, upon that of seniority, or long 



At Eton and Oxford 49 

residence, and not of merit. Because there was 
no competition, scholars who were deficient in 
education at Eton were promoted to Cambridge, 
where they had no incentive to work, being exempt 
from the ordinary university examination. 

At Eton '' no instruction was given in any 
branch of mathematical, physical, metaphysical 
or moral science, nor in the evidences of Chris- 
tianity. The only subjects which it professed to 
impart a knowledge of were the Greek and Latin 
languages ; as much divinity as can be gained 
from construing the Greek Testament, and read- 
ing a portion of Tomline on the Thirty-nine 
Articles, and a little ancient and modern 
geography." So much for the instruction im- 
parted. As regards the hours of tuition, there 
seems to have been fault there, in that they were 
too few and insufficient, there being in all only 
eleven hours a week study. Then as to the 
manner of study, no time was given the scholar 
to study the style of an author ; he was '' hurried 
from Herodotus to Thucydides, from Thucydides 
to Xenophon, from Xenophon to Lucian, without 
being habituated to the style of any one author — 
without gaining an interest in the history, or 
even catching the thread of the narrative ; and 
when the whole book is finished he has probably 
collected only a few vague ideas about Darius 
crying over a great army, Abydos and Nicias 
and Demosthenes being routed with a great army 



50 William E. Gladstone 

near Syracuse, mixed up with a recollection of 
the death of Cyrus and Socrates, some moral pre- 
cept from Socrates, and some jokes against false 
philosophers and heathen gods." Hence the 
Eton student who goes to Cambridge finds he 
has done but a little desultory reading, and that 
he must begin again. It was charged that the 
system of education at Eton failed in every point. 
The moral discipline of the school was also called 
in question. The number of scholars was so 
great that the proper control of them seemed 
impossible under the management. Great laxity 
prevailed among the larger boys, while the younger 
and weaker students were exposed to the tyranny 
of the older and stronger ones without hope of 
redress. The result was that the system of 
*' fagging," or the acting of some boys as drudges 
for the others, flourished. " The right " of fag- 
ging depended upon the place in the school ; all 
boys in the sixth and fifth forms had the power 
of ordering — all below the latter form being 
bound to obey. This system of fagging has a 
very injurious effect upon most of the boys ; 
" it finds them slaves and leaves them despots. 
A boy who has suffered himself, insensibly 
learns to see no harm in making others suffer 
in turn. The whole thing is wrong in principle, 
and engenders passions which should be stifled 
and not encouraged." Why free and enlightened 
England should tolerate, even then, such barbar- 



At Eton and Oxford 51 

ous slavery cannot be understood and yet there 
are outrageous customs prel^ailing among college 
students of our day in every civilized land that 
should be suppressed. 

Flogging was in vogue, too, at Eton, with all 
its degrading and demoralizing effects, and was 
performed by the Head-Master himself. In 1820, 
the year before Mr. Gladstone entered Eton, there 
were 280 upper students and 319 lower, a 
total of 612, and none were exempt. 

Some curious stories are told of flogging, 
which has ever existed at Eton, and from which 
even the largest boys were not exempt. Mr. 
Lewis relates how a young man of twenty, just 
upon the point of leaving school, and engaged to 
be married to a lady at Windsor, was well and 
soundly whipped by Dr. Goodford, for arriving 
one evening at his tutor's house after the specified 
time. And it is related that Arthur Wellesley, 
afterwards the Iron Duke of Wellington, was 
flogged at Eton for having been ^' barred out." 
At the same time there were eighty boys who 
were whipped. 

And the Eton of twenty years later was very 
little improved over its condition in Mr. Glad- 
stone's time there, or in 1845. John D. Lewis, 
speaking of this period, says that after the boys 
reached the fifth form, then began ^' some of the 
greatest anomalies and absurdities of the then 
Etonian system." The student was now safe 



52 William E. Gladstone 

from the ordeal of examinations, and that the 
higher classes, incluci^ing ten senior collegers and 
ten senior oppidans, contained some of the very 
worst scholars. "A boy's place on the general 
roll was no more a criterion of his acquirements 
and his industry than would be the ' year ' of a 
young man at Oxford or Cambridge." The 
collegers, however, were required to pass some 
kind of examination, in accordance with which 
their place on the list for the King's college was 
fixed. But the evils regarding the hours of study 
and the nature of the studies were as bad. '' The 
-regular holidays and Saints' days, two whole 
holidays in a week, and two half-holidays, were a 
matter of common occurrence." 

Lord Morley, in his examination before the 
Commission on Public Schools, was asked whether 
a boy would be looked down upon at Eton for 
being industrious in his studies, replied, " Not if 
he could do something else well." And this 
seems to be the spirit of the Eton boy with whom 
a lack of scholarship is- more than made up by 
skill in river or field sports. 

This is true to-day ; for a recent writer in the 
Foritm^ upon "The Training of Boys at Eton," 
says : '' Athletic prominence is in English public 
schools almost synonymous with social promi- 
nence ; many a boy whose capacity and character 
commanded both respect and liking at the 
universities and in after life, is almost a nobody 



At Eton and Oxford 53 

at a public school, because lie bas no special 
athletic gifts. * * '^ Great athletic capacity 
may co-exist with low moral and intellectual 
character." 

There were few inducements to study and 
to excel in scholarship, and plenty to idleness 
and neglect, hence he who did so must study' 
in hours and out of hours, in season and out of 
season. The curriculum is still strictly classical, 
but French, German and mathematics are taught. 
The collegers of recent years have done very fair 
work and carried off many distinctions at Cam- 
bridge. With all these odds against them, and 
these dif&culties to surmount, yet there were 
Eton boys whose attainments were deep and 
solid, and who became famous men, and one of 
these was William E. Gladstone. 

When young Gladstone entered Eton his 
brothers, Thomas and Robertson Gladstone, were 
already there, and the three boys boarded at 
Mrs. Shurey's, whose house " at the south end of 
the broad walk in front of the schools and 
facing the chapel," was rather nearer the famous 
"Christopher Inn" than would be thought de- 
sirable nowadays. On the wall opposite the house 
the name of " Gladstone " is carved. Thomas 
Gladstone was in the fifth form, and William 
was placed in the middle remove of the fourth 
form, and became his eldest brother's '' fag." 
This doubtlessly saved him much annoyance 



54 William E. Gladstone 

and suffering, and allowed him better to pursue 
the studious bent of his indications. 

William E. Gladstone was what Etonians 
called a " sap " — in other words, a student faithful 
in the discharge of every duty devolving upon 
him at school — one who studied his lessons and 
was prepared for his recitations in -the class- 
room. This agreeable fact has been immortalized 
in a famous line in Lord Lytton's '' New Timon." 
He worked hard at his classical studies, as 
required by the rules of the school, and applied 
himself diligently to the study of mathematics 
during the holidays. 

It is said that his interest in the work of the 
school was first aroused by Mr. Hawtrey, who 
afterwards became Head-Master, who commended 
some of his Latin verses, and *' sent him up for 
good." This led the young man to associate 
intellectual work with the ideas of ambition and 
success. While he did not seem to be especially 
an apt scholar in the restricted sense for original 
versification in the classical languages, or for 
turning English into Greek or Latin, yet he 
seemed to seize the precise meaning of the au- 
thors and to give the sense. " His composition 
was stiff," but yet, says a classmate, " when 
there were thrilling passages of Virgil or Homer, 
or dif&cult passages in ' Scriptores Graeci ^ to 
translate, he or Lord Arthur Hervey was 




mn im mim ' m mmKt^ ' 



i! / 




T//^ Pi ir//fG f!£LT>h, 



^0|IH GU!)§^^j^ 







.■ -'^ ^;'*. i-H i 



At Eton and Oxford 57 

generally called up to edify the class with 
quotations or translations." 

He had no prizes at Eton except what is 
called being sent up for good, on account of 
verses, and he was honored on several occasions. 
Besides he took deep interest in starting a college 
periodical, and with some of the most intellectual 
of the students sustained it with his pen. The 
more studious of Eton boys have on several 
occasions in the present century been in the 
habit of establishing periodicals for the purpose 
of ventilating their opinions. In 1 786 Mr. Can- 
ning and Mr. Hookham Frere established the 
Microcosm^ whose essays ^^rAjeux d'^ esprit^ while 
having reference primarily to Eton, demonstrated 
that the writers were not insensible to what was 
going on in the great world without. It was for 
this college paper that Canning wrote his '^ Essay 
on the Epic of the Queen of Hearts," which, as a 
burlesque criticism, has been awarded a high 
place in English literature. Lord Henry Spen- 
cer, Hookham Frere, Capel Lofft, and Mr. 
Millish, were also contributors to the columns of 
the Microcosm. In the year 1820 W. Mack- 
worth Praed set on foot a manuscript journal, 
entitled Apis Matina, This was in turn suc- 
ceeded by the Etonian^ to which Praed con- 
tributed some of his most brilliant productions. 
John Moultrie, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Walter 
Blunt, and Chauncy Hare Townshend were also 



58 William E. Gladstone 

among the writers for its papers, who helped to 
make it of exceptional excellence. Its articles 
are of no ordinary interest even now. 

In the last year of William E. Gladstone's 
stay at Eton, in 1827, ^^^ seven years after 
Praed's venture, he was largely instruinental in 
launching the Eton Miscellany^ professedly 
edited by Bartholomew Bouverie, and Mr. 
Gladstone became a most frequent, voluminous 
and valuable contributor to its pages. He wrote 
articles of every kind — prologues, epilogues, 
leaders, historical essays, satirical sketches, 
classical translations, humorous productions, 
poetry and prose. And among the principal 
contributors with him were Sir Francis Doyle, 
George Selwyn, James Colville, Arthur Hallam, 
John Haumer and James Milnes-Gaskell. The 
introduction, written by and signed " William 
Ewart Gladstone" for this magazine, contained 
the following interesting and singular passage, 
which probably fairly sets forth the hopes and 
fears that beset statesmen in maturer years, as 
well as Eton boys of only seventeen years of age : 

" In my present undertaking there is one 
gulf in which I fear to sink, and that gulf is 
Lethe. There is one stream which I dread my 
inability to stem — it is the tide of Popular 
Opinion. I have ventured, and no doubt 
rashly ventured — 

Like little wanton boj^s that swim on bladders, 
To' try my fortune in a sea of glory, 
Butikr beyond my depth.' 



At Eton and Oxford 59 

At present it is hope alone that buoys me up ; 
for more substantial support I must be indebted 
to my own exertions, well knowing that in this 
land of literature merit never wants its reward. 
That such merit is mine I dare not presume to 
think ; but still there is something within me 
that bids me hope that I may be able to glide 
prosperously down the stream of public estima- 
tion ; or, in the words of Virgil, 

* — Celerare viam rumore secundo.' 

" I was surprised even to- see some works 
with the names of Shakespeare and Milton on 
them sharing the common destiny, but on 
examination I found that those of the latter were 
some political rhapsodies, which richly deserved 
their fate ; and that the former consisted of some 
editions of his works which had been burdened 
with notes and mangled with emendations by his 
merciless commentators. In other places I 
perceived authors worked up into frenzy by see- 
ing their own compositions descending like the 
rest. Often did the infuriated scribes extend 
their hands, and make a plunge to endeavor to 
save their beloved offspring, but in vain ; I pitied 
the anguish of their disappointment, but with 
feelings of the same commiseration as that 
which one feels for a malefactor on beholding his 
death, being at the same time fully conscious how 
well he has deserved it." - 



6o William E. Gladstone 

Little did this diffident and yontlifnl editor 
imagine that he was forecasting the fntnre for 
himself by the aid of youth's most ardent desires, 
and that he would live to become the Primate 
of all England and the foremost statesman of 
his day. 

There were two volumes of the Miscellany^ 
dated June-July and October-November, respect- 
ively, and Mr. Gladstone contributed thirteen 
articles to the first volume. Among the con- 
tributions were an " Ode to the Shade of Watt 
Tyler,'' a vigorous rendering of a chorus from the 
Hucuba of Euripides, and a letter under the name 
of '' Philophantasm," detailing an encounter he 
had with the poet Virgil, in which the great poet 
appeared muttering something which did not 
sound like Latin to an Eton boy, and complain- 
ing that he knew he was hated by the Eton boys 
because he was difficult to learn, and pleading to 
be as well received henceforth as Horace. 

We give a quotation from a poem, consisting 
of some two hundred and fift}'- lines, from his 
pen, which appeared also in the Miscellany : 

" Who foremost now the deadly spear to dart, 
And strike the javelin to the Moslem's heart ? 
Who foremost now to climb the leaguered wall, 
The first to triumph, or the first to fall ? 
lyO, where the Moslems rushing to the fight, 
Back bear their squadrons in inglorious flight. 
With plumed hehuet, and with glittering lance, 

'Tis Richard bids his steel-clad bands advance ; 

'Tis Righard stalks along the blood-d3^ed plain, 



At Eton and Oxford 6i 

And views unmoved the slaying and tlie slain ; 
'Tis Richard bathes his hands in Moslem blood, 
And tinges Jordan with the purple flood. 
Yet where the timbrels ring, the trumpets sound, 
And tramp of horsemen shakes the solid ground, 
Though 'mid the deadly charge and rush of fight. 
No thought be theirs of terror or of flight, — 
Ofttimes a sigh will rise, a tear will flow. 
And youthful bosoms melt in silent woe ; 
For who of iron frame and harder heart 
Can bid the mem'ry of his home depart? 
Tread the dark desert and the thirsty sand, 
Nor give one thought to England's smiling land ? 
To scenes of bliss, and days of other years — 
The Vale of Gladness and the Vale of Tears ; 
That, passed and vanish' d from their loving sight. 
This 'neath their view, and wrapt in shades of night? " 

Among other writers wlio contributed to the 
first volume of the Miscellany were Arthur 
Henry Hallam and Doyle, also G. A. Selwyn, 
afterwards Bishop Selwyn, the friend of Mr. 
Gladstone, and to whom he recently paid the 
following tribute : " Connected as tutor with 
families of rank and influence, universally 
popular from his frank, manly, and engaging 
character — and scarcely less so from his extra- 
ordinary rigor as an athlete~he was attached to 
Eton, where he resided, with a love surpassing 
the love of Etonians. In himself he formed a 
large part of the life of Eton, and Eton formed a 
large part of his life. To him is due no small 
share of the beneficial movement in the direction 
of religious earnestness which marked the Eton 
of forty years back, and which was not, in my 



62 William E. Gladstone 

opinion, sensibly affected by any influence 
extraneous to the place itself. At a moment's 
notice, upon the call of duty, he tore up the 
singularly deep roots which his life had struck 
deep into the soil of England." 

Both Mr. Gladstone and the future Bishop 
of Selwyn contributed humorous letters' to " The 
Postman," the correspondence department of the 
Eton Miscellany. 

In the second volume of the Eton Miscellany 
are articles of equal interest to those that 
appeared in the first. Doyle, Jelf, Selwyn, Shad- 
well and Arthur Henry Hallam were contribu- 
tors, the latter having written " The Battle of the 
Boyne," a parody upon Campbell's " Hohen- 
linden." But here again Mr. Gladstone was the 
principal contributor, having contributed to this 
even more largely than to the first, having 
written seventeen articles, besides the introduc- 
tions to the various numbers of the volume. 
Indeed one would think from his devotion to 
these literary pursuits during his last year at 
Eton, that he had very little leisure for those 
ordinary sports so necessary to Eton boys. He 
seems to have begun his great literary activity. 
Among them may be mentioned an " Ode to the 
Shade of Watt Tyler," mentioned before, which is 
an example of his humorous style ; 



At Eton and Oxford 6} 

"Shade of him whose valiant tongue 
On high the song of freedom sung ; 
Shade of him, whose mighty soul 
Would pay no taxes on his poll ; 
Though, swift as lightning, civic sword ♦ 

Descended on thy fated head, 
The blood of England's boldest poured, 

And numbered Tyler with the dead ! 

** Still may thy spirit flap its wings 
At midnight o'er the couch of kings ; 
And peer and prelate tremble, too, 
In dread of mighty interview ! 
With patriot gesture of command, 

With eyes that like thy forges gleam, 
lycst Tyler's voice and Tyler's hand 
, Be heard and seen in nightly dream. 

*' I hymn the gallant and the good 
From Tyler down to Thistlewood, 
My muse the trophies grateful sings, 
The deeds of Miller and of Ings ; 
She sings of all who, soon or late, 

Have burst Subjection's iron chain, 
Have seal'd the bloody despot's fate, 

Or cleft a peer or priest in twain. 

"Shades, that soft Sedition woo. 
Around the haunts of Peterloo ! 
That hover o'er the meeting-halls. 
Where many a voice stentorian bawls ! 
Still flit the sacred choir around, 

With ' Freedom ' let the garrets ring, 
And vengeance soon in thunder sound 
On Church, and constable, and king." 

In a paper on " Eloquence," in tlie same 
volnme, lie shows that even then his young mind 
was impressed by the fame attached to successful 
oratory in Parliament. Visions of glory and 
honor open before the enraptured sight of those 



64 William E. Gladstone 

devoted to oratorical pursuits, and wHose ardent 
and aspiring minds are directed to tHe House of 
Commons. Evidently the young writer himself 
^^ had visions of parliamentary oratory, and of a 
successful debuf in the House of Commons, 
with perhaps an offer from the Minister, a 
Secretaryship of State, and even^ the Pre- 
miership itself in the distance." But then 
there are barriers to pass and ordeals to under- 
go. " There are roars of coughing, as well as 
roars of cheering " from the members of the 
House, ^' and maiden speeches sometimes act 
more forcibly on the lungs of hearers than 
the most violent or most cutting of all the 
breezes which ^oi^us can boast." But the 
writer draws comfort from the fact that Lord 
Morfeth, Edward Geoffrey, Stanley and Lord 
Castlereagh, who were all members of the Eton 
college debating society, were then among the 
most successful young speakers in Parliament. 
This sounds more like prophecy than dreams, for 
within a very few years after writing this article 
the writer himself had passed the dreaded barrier 
and endured the ordeal, and had not only made 
his appearance in the House of Commons, but 
had been invited to fill an honorable place in the 
Cabinet of the Ministry then in power. 

Another contribution of Mr. Gladstone's to 
the Miscellany^ and perhaps the most meritorious 
of the youthful writer's productions, was entitled. 



At Eton and Oxford 65 

"Ancient and Modern Genius Compared," in 
which the young Etonian editor ardently and 
affectionately apostrophized the memory of 
Canning, his father's great friend and his own 
ideal man and statesman, who had just then 
perished untimely and amid universal regret. 
In this article he first takes the part of the 
moderns as against the ancients, though he by 
no means deprecates the genius of the latter, and 
then eloquently apostrophizes the object of his 
youthful hero-worship, the immortal Canning, 
whose death he compares to that of the lamented 
Pitt. The following are extracts from this 
production : 

" It is for those who revered him in the 
plenitude of his meridian glory to mourn over 
him in the darkness of his premature extinction : 
to mourn over the hopes that are buried in his 
grave, and the evils that arise from his with- 
drawing from the scene of life. Surely if 
eloquence never excelled and seldom equalled — if 
an expanded mind and judgment whose vigor 
was paralleled only by its soundness — if brilliant 
wit — if a glowing imagination — if a warm heart, 
and an unbending firmness — could have strength- 
ened the frail tenure, and prolonged the 
momentary duration of human existence, that 
man had been immortal ! But nature could 
endure no longer. Thus has Providence ordained 
that inasmuch as the intellect is more brilliant^ 



66 William E. Gladstone 

it shall be more sHort-lived ; as its spliere is more 
expanded, more swiftly is it summoned away. 
Lest we should give to man the honor due to 
God — lest we should exalt the object of our 
admiration into a divinity for our worship — He 
who calls the weary and the mourner to eternal 
rest hath been pleased to remove -him from 
our eyes. 

" The degrees of inscrutable wisdom are 
unknown to us ; but if ever there was a man for 
whose sake it was meet to indulge the kindly 
though frail feelings of our nature — for whom 
the tear of sorrow was to us both prompted by 
affection and dictated by duty — that man was 
George Canning." 

After Hallam, Selwyn and other contribu- 
tors to the Miscellany left Eton, at mid- 
summer, 1827, ^^- Gladstone still remained 
and became the mainstay of the magazine 
'' Mr. Gladstone and I remained behind as its 
main supporters," writes Sir Francis Doyle, " or 
rather it would be more like the truth if I said 
that Mr. Gladstone supported the whole burden 
upon his own shoulders. I was unpunctual and 
unmethodical, so were his other vassals ; and the 
' Miscellany ' would have fallen to the ground but 
for Mr. Gladstone's untiring energy, pertinacity 
and tact." 

Although Mr. Gladstone labored in editorial 
work upon the Miscellany^ yet he took time to 



At Eton and Oxford 67 

bestow attention upon liis duties in the Eton 
Society of the College, learnedly called ^^ The 
Literati," and vulgarly called '' Pop," and took 
a leading part in the debates and in the private 
business of the Society. The Eton Society of 
Gladstone's day was a brilliant group of boys. 
He introduced desirable new members, moved for 
more readable and instructive newspapers, pro- 
posing new rules for better order and more de- 
corous conduct, moving fines on those guilty of 
disorder or breaches of the rules, and paying a 
fine imposed upon himself for putting down an 
illegal question. " In debate he champions 
the claims of metaphysics against those of 
mathematics, and defends aristocracy against 
democracy ; " confesses innate feelings of dislike 
to the French ; protests against disarmament of 
the Highlanders as inexpedient and unjust ; 
deplores the fate of Strafford and the action of 
the House of Commons, which he claimed they 
should be able to '' revere as our glory and con- 
fide in as our protection." The meetings of the 
Eton Society were held over Miss Hatton's 
^' sock-shop." 

In politics its members were Tory — intensely 
so, and although current politics were forbidden 
subjects, yet, political opinions were disclosed in 
discussions of historical or academical questions. 
^'The execution of Strafford and Charles I, 
the characters of Oliver Cromwell and Milton 



68 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

tlie ' Central Social ' of Rousseau, and tlie events 
of the Frencli Revolution, laid bare the speakers' 
political tendencies as effectually as if the conduct 
of Queen Caroline, the foreign policy of Lord 
Castlereagh, or the repeal of the Test and Cor- 
poration Act had been the subject of debate." 

It was October 15, 1825, when Gladstone 
was elected a member of the Eton Society, and on 
the 29th of the same month made his maiden 
speech on the question " Is the education of the 
poor ofi the whole beneficial ? " It is recorded in 
the minutes of the meeting that '' Mr. Gladstone 
rose and eloquently addressed the house." He 
spoke in favor of education ; and one who heard 
him says that his opening words were, " Sir, in 
this age of increased and increasing civilization." 
Says an eminent writer, by way of comment upon 
these wordSp " It almost oppresses the im- 
agination to picture the vShoreless sea of eloquence 
which rolls between that exordium and the 
oratory to which we still are listening and hope 
to listen for years to come." 

'' The peroration of his speech on the ques- 
tion whether Queen Anne's Ministers, in the last 
four years of her reign, deserved well of their 
country, is so characteristic, both in substance 
and in form," that we reproduce it here from 
Dr. Russell's work on Gladstone : 

"Thus much, sir, I have said, as conceiving 
myself bound in fairness not to regard the names 



At Eton and Oxford 69 

under whicli men have fiidden their designs so 
mucli as the designs themselves. I am well 
aware that my prejudices and my predilections 
have long been enlisted on the side of Toryism 
(cheers) and that in a cause like this I am not 
likely to be influenced unfairly against men 
bearing that name and professing to act on the 
principles which I have always been accustomed 
to revere. But the good of my country must 
stand on a higher ground than distinctions like 
these.' In common fairness and in common can- 
dor, I feel myself compelled to give my decisive 
verdict against the conduct of men whose meas- 
ures I firmly believe to have been hostile to 
British interests, destructive of British glory, and 
subversive of the splendid and, I trust, lasting 
fabric of the British constitution." 

The following extracts from the diary of 
William Cowper, afterwards Lord Mount-Temple, 
we also reproduce from the same author : ^' On 
Saturday, October 27, 1827, ^^^ subject for 
debate was : 

'' ' Whether the deposition of Richard II was 
justifiable or not.' Jelf opened; not a good 
speech. Doyle spoke extempore^ made several 
mistakes, which were corrected by Jelf. Glad- 
stone spoke well. The Whigs were regularly 
floored; only four Whigs to eleven Tories, but 
they very nearly kept up with them in coughing 
and ' hear, hears.' Adjourned to Monday after 4. 



70 William E. Gladstone 

^' Monday, 29. — Gladstone finished his speech, 
and ended with a great deal of flattery of Doyle, 
saying that he was snre he would have courage 
enough to own that he was wrong. It succeeded. 
Doyle rose amidst reiterated cheers to own that 
he was convinced by the arguments of the other 
side. He had determined before to answer them 
and cut up Gladstone ! 

^'December i. — Debate, 'Whether the Peerage 
Bill of 1 7 19 was calculated to be beneficial or not.' 
Thanks voted to Doyle and Gladstone ; the latter 
spoke well ; will be a great loss to the Society." 

There were many boys at Eton — school- 
fellows of Mr. Gladstone — who became men of 
note in after days. Among them the Hallams, 
Charles Canning, afterwards Lord Canning and 
Governor-General of India ; Walter Hamilton, 
Bishop of Salisbury ; Edward Hamilton, his 
brother, of Charters ; James Hope, afterwards 
Hope-Scott ; James Bruce, afterwards Lord Elgin ; 
James Milnes-Gaskell, M. P. for Wenlock ; Henry 
Denison ; Sir Francis Doyle ; Alexander King- 
lake ; George Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand 
and of Litchfield ; Lord Arthur Hervey, Bishop 
of Bath and Wells ; William Cavendish, Duke 
of Devonshire ; George Cornwallis Lewis ; Fred- 
eric Tennyson ; Gerald Wellesley, Dean of Wind- 
sor ; Spencer Walpole, Home Secretary ; Frederic 
Rogers, Lord Blachford; James Colvile, Chief 
Justice at Calcutta, and others. 



At Eton and Oxford 71 

By universal acknowledgment the most re- 
markable youth at Eton in that day was Arthur 
Hallam, " in mind and character not unworthy 
of the magnificent eulogy of ' In Memoriam.' " 
He was the most intimate friend of young Glad- 
stone. They always took breakfast together, 
although they boarded apart in different houses, 
and during the separation of vacations they were 
diligent correspondents. 

The father of William E. Gladstone, as we 
have seen, discovered premonitions of future 
greatness in his son, and we may well ask the 
question what impression was made by him upon 
his fellow school-mates at Eton. Arthur Hallam 
wrote : " Whatever may be our lot, I am confident 
chat he is a bud that will bloom with a richer 
fragrance than almost any whose early promise 
I have witnessed." 

James Milnes-Gaskell says : " Gladstone is 
no ordinary individual; and perhaps if I were 
called on to select the individual I am intimate 
with to whom I should first turn in an emergency, 
and whom I thought in every way pre-eminently 
distinguished for high excellence, I think I 
should turn to Gladstone. If you finally decide 
in favor of Cambridge, my separation from 
Gladstone will be a source of great sorrow to 
me." And the explanation of this latter remark 
is that the writer's mother wanted him to go to 



72 William E. Gladstone 

Cambridge, while he wished to go to Oxford, 
because Gladstone was going there. 

Sir Francis Doyle writes : ''I may as well 
remark that my father, a man of great ability, as 
well as of great experience of life, predicted Glad- 
stone's future eminence from the manner in which 
he handled this somewhat tiresome- business. 
[The editorial work and management of the 
Eto7i Miscellany J\ ' It is not ' he remarked, ^ that 
I think his papers better than yours or Hallam's 
— that is not my meaning at all ; but the force of 
character he has shown in managing his sub- 
ordinates, and the combination of ability and 
power that he has made evident, convince me 
that such a young man cannot fail to distinguish 
himself hereafter." 

The recreations of young Gladstone were 
not in all respects like his school-mates. He 
took no part in games, for he had no taste in 
that direction, and while his companions were 
at play he was studiously employed in his room. 
One of the boys afterwards declared, '^ without 
challenge or contradiction, that he ' was never 
seen to run." Yet he had his diversions and 
was fond of sculling, and kept a '^ lock-up," or 
private boat, for his own use. He liked walking 
for exercise, and walked fast and far. His 
chief amusement when not writing, reading or 
debating, was to ramble among the delights 
of Windsor with a few intimate friends ; and 



At Eton and Oxford 75 

he had only a few whom he admitted to his 
inner circle. To others beyond he was not known 
and was not generally popular. Gladstone, 
Charles Canning, Handley, Bruce, Hodgson, 
Lord Bruce and Milnes-Gaskell set up a Salt 
Hill Club. They met every whole holiday or 
half-holiday, as was convenient, after twelve, ''and 
went up to Salt Hill to bully the fat waiter, eat 
toasted cheese, and drink egg-wine." It is start- 
ling to hear from such an authority as James 
Milnes-Gaskell that " in all our meetings, as well 
as at almost every time, Gladstone went by the 
name of Mr. Tipple." 

The strongest testimony is borne to the 
moral character of young Gladstone while at 
Eton. By common consent he was pre-emi- 
nently God-fearing, orderly and conscientious. 
Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbury, writes : ''At 
Eton I was a thoroughly idle boy ; but I was 
saved from some worse things by getting to 
know Gladstone." This is the strong testimony 
of one school-boy after he has reached maturity 
and distinction for another. " To have exercised, 
while still a school-boy, an influence for good 
upon one of the greatest of contemporary saints, 
is surely such a distinction as few Prime Minis- 
ters ever attain." 

Two stories are told of him while at Eton 
that go to show the moral determination of the 
boy to do right. On one occasion he turned his 



76 William E. Gladstone 

glass upside down and refused to drink a coarse 
toast proposed, according to annual custom, at 
an election dinner at tHe '' Cliristoplier Inn." 
This shows the purity of his mind, but there is 
another illustrating the humane feeling in his 
heart. He came forth as the champion of some 
miserable pigs which it was the inhumane cus- 
tom to torture at Eton Fair on Ash Wednesday, 
and when he was bantered by his school-fellows 
for his humanity, he offered to write his reply 
" in good round hand upon their faces." 

At Christmas, 1827, Gladstone left Eton, 
and after that studied six months under private 
tutors. Dr. Turner, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, 
being one. Of this Mr. Gladstone writes : "I 
resided with Dr. Turner at Wilmslow (in Che- 
shire) from January till a few months later. My 
residence with him was cut off by his appoint- 
ment to the Bishopric of Calcutta. . . . My 
companions were the present (1877) Bishop of 
Sodor and Man, and Sir C. A. Wood, Deputy- 
Chairman of the G. W. Railway. We employed 
our spare time in gymnastics, in turning, and in 
rambles. I remember paying a visit to Maccles- 
field. In a silk factory the owner showed us his 
silk handkerchiefs, and complained much of Mr. 
Huskisson for having removed the prohibition of 
the foreign article. The thought passed through 
my mind at the time : Why make laws to enable 
people to produce articles of such hideous pattern 



At Eton and Oxford 'j'j 

and indifferent quality as this ? Alderly Edge was 
a favorite place of resort. We dined with. Sir 
John Stanley (at Alderly) on the day when the 
king's speech was received ; and I recollect that 
he ridiculed (I think very justly) the epithet 
mitoward^ which was applied in it to the Battle 
of Navarino." 

In 1828, and after two years as "a private 
pupil of Dr. Turner, Mr. Gladstone entered \ 
Christ Church College, Oxford, and in the fol- 
lowing year was nominated to a studentship on i 
the foundation. Although he had no prizes at 
Oxford of the highest class, unless honors in the 
schools be so called — and in this respect he \ 
achieved a success which falls to the lot of but 
few students. In the year 1831, when he went 
up for his final examination, he completed his 
academical education by attaining the highest/ 
honors in the university — graduating double-/ 
first-class. 

Of the city of Oxford, where Oxford Uni- 
versity is situated, Matthew Arnold writes : 
*' Beautiful city ! So venerable, so lovely, so 
unravaged by the fierce intellectual life of our 
century, so serene ! And yet, steeped in senti- 
ment as she lies, spreading her gardens to the 
moonlight, or whispering from her towers the 
last enchantments of the Middle Age, who will 
deny that Oxford, by her ineffable charm, keeps 
ever calling us near to the true goal of all of us, 



78 William E. Gladstone 

to the ideal, to perfection — to beauty, in a word, 
wliicli is only truth, seen from another side." 

Describing Christ Church College, a writer 
has said that there is no other College where a 
man has so great a choice of society, or a man 
entire freedom in choosing it. 

As to the studies required, a greater stress 
was laid upon a knowledge of the Bible and of 
the evidences of Christianity than upon classical 
literature; some proficiency was required also, 
either in mathematics or the science of reasoning. 
The system of education accommodated itself to 
the capacity and wants of the students, but the 
man of talent was at no loss as to a field for his 
exertions, or a reward for his industry. The 
honors of the ministry were all within his reach. 
In the cultivation of taste and generaJ informa- 
tion Oxford afforded every opportunity, but the 
modern languages were not taught. 

An interesting fact is related of young 
Gladstone when he entered Oxford, as to his 
studies at the university. He wrote his father 
that he disliked mathematics, and that he in- 
tended to concentrate, his time and attention upon 
the classics. This was a great blow to his father, 
who replied that he did not think a man was a 
man unless he knew mathematics. The dutiful 
son yielded to his father's wishes, abandoned his 
own plan, and applied himself with energy and 
success to the study of mathematics. But for 



At Eton and Oxford 79 

this change of study lie might not have become 
the greatest of Chancellors of the Exchequer. 

Gladstone's instructors at Oxford were men 
of reputation. Rev. Robert Biscoe, whose lec- 
tures on Aristotle attracted some of the best men 
to the university, was his tutor; he attended 
the lectures of Dr. Burton on Divinity, and of 
Dr. Pusey on Hebrew, and read classics privately 
with Bishop Wordsworth. He read steadily but 
not laboriously. Nothing was ever allowed to 
interfere with his morning's work. He read for 
four hours, and then took a walk. Though not 
averse to company and suppers, yet he always 
read for two or three hours before bedtime. 

Among the undergraduates at Oxford then, 
who became conspicuous, were Henry Edward 
Manning, afterwards Cardinal Archbishop ; 
Archibald. Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury ; Sidney Herbert, Robert Lowe, Lord Sher- 
brooke, and Lord Selborne. '' The man who 
took me most," says a visitor to Oxford in 1829, 
^'was the youngest Gladstone of Liverpool — I am 
sure a very superior person." 

Gladstone's chosen friends were all steady 
and industrious men, and many of them were 
more distinctively religious than is generally 
found in the life of undergraduates. And his 
choice of associates in this respect was the 
subject of criticism on the part of a more secu- 
larly minded student who wrote, " Gladstone has 



go William E. Gladstone 

mixed himself up witH tlie St. Mary Hall and 
Oriel set, who are really, for the most part, only 
fit to live with maiden aunts and keep tame 
rabbits." And the question. Which was right- 
Gladstone or the student? may be answered 
by another, Which one became Prime Minister 
of England ? 

" Gladstone's first rooms were in the ^ old 
library,' near the hall ; but for the greater part 
of his time he occupied the right-hand rooms on 
the first floor of the first staircase, on the right 
as the visitor enters Canterbury gate. He was, 
alike in study and in conduct, a model under- 
graduate, and the great influence of his character 
and talents was used with manly resolution 
against the riotous conduct of the * Tufts,' whose 
brutality caused the death of one of their number 
in 183 1. We read this note in the correspond- 
ence of a friend : ^ I heard from Gladstone yester- 
day; he says that the number of gentlemen 
commoners has increased, is increasing, and ought 
to be diminished.' Every one who has experi- 
enced the hubristic qualities of the Tufted race, 
and its satellites, will cordially sympathize with 
this sentiment of an orderly and industrious 
undergraduate. He was conspicuously moderate 
in the use of wine. His good example in this 
respect affected not only his contemporaries but 
also his successors at the university ; men who 
followed him to Oxford ton years later found it 



At Eton and Oxford it 

still operative, and declare tHat undergraduates 
drank less in tlie forties, because Gladstone had 
been courageously abstemious in tbe thirties." 

But there were those who better estimated 
Gladstone's worth and looked approvingly upon 
his course, as '' the blameless schoolboy became 
the blameless undergraduate; diligent, sober, 
regular alike in study and devotion, giving his 
whole energies to the duties of the place, and 
quietly abiding in the religious faith in which he 
had been trained. Bishop Charles Wordsworth 
said that no man of his standing in the university 
habitually read his Bible more or knew it better. 
Cardinal Manning described him walking in the 
university with his ^ Bible and Prayer-book tucked 
under his arm.' * * * He quitted Oxford with 
a religious belief still untinctured by Catholic 
theology. But the great change was not far 
distant, and he had already formed some of the 
friendships which, in their development were 
destined to effect so profoundly the course of his 
religious thought." 

In reference to the religious and political 
opinions and influences prevailing at Oxford, it 
may be remarked that the atmosphere of Oxford 
was calculated to strengthen Mr. Gladstone's 
conservative views, and did have this effect, and 
as English statesmen had not then learned to put 
their trust in the people, the cause of reform 
found few or no friends at the university, and he 



82 William E. Gladstone 

was among tliose hostile to it, and was known for 
his pronounced Tory and High Church opinions. | 

He belonged to the famous debating society 1 
known as the Oxford Union, was a brilliant I 
debater, and in 183 1 was its secretary, and later 
its president. On various occasions he carried, 
by a majority of one only, a motion that the 
Wellington Administration was undeserving of 
the confidence of the country ; he defended the 
results of the Catholic Emancipation ; he opposed 
a motion for. the removal of Jewish disabilities, 
and he persuaded 94 students out of 130 to con- 
demn Earl Grey's Reform Bill as a measure 
'' which threatened not only to change the form of 
government, but ultimately to break up the very 
foundation of social order." His last speech a^ 
Oxford was in support of his own amendment tcl 
a motion for the immediate emancipation of thd 
slaves in the West Indies. On a certain occasioii 
he entertained a party of students from Cam-1 
bridge, consisting of Sir Francis Doyle, Monck- 
ton Milnes, Sunderland, and Arthur H. Hallam, 
who discussed among them the superiority of 
Shelley over Byron as a poet. The motion was 
opposed by one Oxonion, the late Cardinal 
Manning, but Shelley received 90 votes to 33 for 
Byron. 

One who heard the debate on the Reform 
Bill says that " it converted Alston, the son of 
the member in Parlia- f for Hertford, who 



At Eton and Oxford 83 

immediately on tlie condusion of Gladstone's 
speech walked across from the Whig to the Tory 
side of the house, amidst loud acclamations." 
Another who was present writes, '' Most of the 
speakers rose, more or less, above their usual 
level, but when Mr. Gladstone sat down we all 
of us felt that an epoch in our lives had occurred. 
It certainly was the finest speech of his that I 
ever heard." And Bishop Charles Wordsworth 
writes his experience of Mr. Gladstone at this 
time, '' made me feel no less sure than of my 
own 'existence that Gladstone, our then Christ- 
Church undergraduate, would one day rise to be 
Prime Minister of England." 

In the spring of 1832 Mr. Gladstone quitted 
Oxford. In summing up results it may be said, 
in the language of Mr. Russell: "Among the 
purely intellectual effects produced on Mr. Glad- 
stone by the discipline of Oxford, it is obvious to 
reckon an almost excessive exactness in the 
statement of propositions, a habit of rigorous 
definition, a microscopic care in the choice of 
words, and a tendency to analyze every senti- 
ment and every phrase, and to distinguish with 
intense precaution between statements almost 
exactly similar. From Aristotle and Bishop 
Butler and Edmund Burke he learned the value 
of authority, the sacredness of law, the danger of 
laying rash and inconsiderate hands upon the 
ark of State. In the political atmosphere of 



84 



William E. Gladstone 



Oxford lie was taught to apply these principles to 
the civil events of his time, to dread innovation, 
to respect existing institutions, and to regard the 
Church and the Throne as inseparably associated 
by Divine ordinance." 




Gladstone's London Home 




CHAPTER III. 

Early Parliamentary Experiences. 

/IT is customary for the sons of gentlemen 
^^y who graduate at Cambridge and Oxford 
^^ to spend some time in travel on the con- 
tinent upon the completion of their 
university studies. The custom was 
observed in Mr. Gladstone's early days even 
more than at the present. In accordance then 
with the prevailing usage he went abroad after 
graduating at Oxford. In the spring of 1832 he 
started on his travels and spent nearly the whole 
of the next six months in Italy, "learning the 
language, studying the art, and revelling in the 
natural beauties of that glorious land." In the 
following September, however, he was suddenly 
recalled to England to enter upon his first 
Parliamentary campaign. 

At Oxford Toryism prevailed, and was of 
the old-fashioned type, far removed frorn the 
utilitarian conservatism of the present day. 
Charles I was a saint and a martyr, the claims 
of rank and birth were admitted with a childlike 

85 



86 William E. Gladstone 

simplicity, the high functions of government 
were the birthright of the few, and the people 
had nothing to do with the laws, except to obey 
them. Mr. Gladstone was a Tory. The political 
views he held upon leaving Oxford had much to 
do with his recall from abroad and his running 
for a seat in the House of Commons. .Of these 
opinions held by him then, and afterwards re- 
pudiated, he, in a speech delivered at the opening 
of the Palmerston Club, Oxford, in December, 
1878, says : " I trace in the education of Oxford 
of my own time one great defect. Perhaps it was 
my own fault ; but I must admit that I did not 
learn, when at Oxford, that which I have learned 
since, viz., to set a due value on the imperishable 
and inestimable principles of human liberty. 
The temper which, I think, too much prevailed in 
academic circles, was that liberty was regarded 
with jealousy and fear, which could not be 
wholly dispensed with, but which was continually 
to be watched for fear of excess. * * * j 
think that the principle' of the Conservative 
party is jealousy of liberty and of the people, 
only qualified by fear ; but I think the policy of 
the Liberal party is trust in the people, only 
qualified by prudence. I can only assure you, 
gentlemen, that now I am in front of extended 
popular privileges. I have no fear of those 
enlargements of the Constitution that seem to be 
approaching. On the contrary, I hail them with 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 87 

desire. I am not in tlie least degree conscious 
that I have less reverence for antiquity, for the 
beautiful, and good, and glorious charges that 
our ancestors have handed down to us as a patri- 
mony to our race, than I had in other days when 
I held other political opinions. I have learnt to 
set the true value upon human liberty, and in 
whatever I have changed, there, and there only, 
has been the explanation of the change.!' 

It was Mr. Gladstone's Tory principles that 
led, to an invitation from the Duke of Newcastle, 
whose son, the Earl of Lincoln, afterwards a 
member of Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet during the 
Crimean War, had been his schoolmate at Eton 
and Oxford, and his intimate friend ; to return 
to England and to contest the representation of 
Newark in Parliament. In accordance with this 
summons he hurried home. 

Let us review the national situation. It 
was a time of general alarm and uncertainty, 
from political unrest, commercial stagnation, and 
devastating pestilence. " The terrors of the time 
begat a hundred forms of strange fanaticism ; 
and among men who were not fanatics there was 
a deep and wide conviction that national judg- 
ments were overtaking national sins, and that 
the only hope of safety for England lay in a 
return to that practical recognition of religion in 
the political sphere at the proudest moments of 
English history. ^ The beginning and the end 



S8 William E. Gladstone 

of what is tlie matter with us in these days,' 
wrote Carlyle, ' is that we have forgotten God.' ^^ 

England was in a condition of great political 
excitement and expectancy. One of the greatest 
battles in Parliamentary history had just been 
fought and won by the people. The Reform 
Bill, which admitted large classes, hitherto un- 
represented, to the right of citizenship, had 
passed, after a long struggle, during which law 
and order were defied and riots prevailed in 
various parts of the kingdom. 

The King clearly perceiving that the wish of 
the people could no longer be disregarded with 
safety, and heedless of the advice of the aristoc- 
racy, gave his assent to the measure. This bill, 
which became a law June 7, 1832, " transformed 
the whole of the Electoral arrangements of the 
United Kingdom." It was demanded that the 
King be present in the House of Lords to witness 
the ceremony of the subjugation of his crown 
and peers, as it was deemed, but the King, 
feeling he had yielded enough to the popular 
ivill, refused. Walpole, in his history, writes : 
^' King and Queen sat sullenly apart in their 
palace. Peer and country gentleman moodily 
awaited the ruin of their country and the 
destruction of their property. Fanaticism still 
raved at the wickedness of a people ; the people, 
clamoring for work, still succumbed before 
the mysterious disease which was continually 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 89 

claiming more and more victims. But the nation 
cared not for the snllennesss of the Court, the 
forebodings of the landed classes, the ravings of 
the pulpit, or even the mysterious operations of 
a new plague. The deep gloom that had over- 
shadowed the land had been relieved by one 
single ray. The victory had been won. The 
bill had become law." 

The first reformed House of Commons, after 
the passage of the terrible Reform Bill, met and 
was looked upon by some of the friends of 
Reform with fond hopes and expectations, and 
by others, the Tories, with fear and apprehension. 
The poor looked upon the Reform Bill as a 
measure for their redemption, and the landed 
proprietors regarded it as the first sign of de- 
parted national greatness. Both classes were 
disappointed. It neither revived business nor 
despoiled owners. The result was a surprise to 
politicians of both parties. The Reformers did 
not, as was anticipated, carry their extreme 
measures, and the Tories did not realize the 
great losses they expected. While the Ministry 
preserved its power and even obtained some 
victories in England and Scotland, it sustained 
serious defeats in Ireland. . In England many 
earnest and popular friends of Reform were 
defeated in the election, and some counties, among 
them Bristol, Stamford, Hertford, Norwich and 
Newark, were pronounced against the Ministry, 



go William E. Gladstone 

The Duke of Newcastle, who was one of 
the chief potentates of the high Tory party, and 
had lost his control of Newark in 183 1, by the 
election of a Radical, was determined to regain it. 
He regarded it as his right to be represented in 
the House of Commons, or that Newark should 
elect whom he nominated. And h-e had pro- 
pounded the memorable political maxim, " Have 
I not a right to do what I like with my own ? " 
The Duke wanted a capable candidate to help 
him regain his ascendency. His' son. Lord 
Lincoln, here came to his aid. He had heard 
the remarkable speech of his friend, Mr. Glad- 
stone, in the Oxford Union, against the Reform 
Bill, and had written home regarding him, that " a 
man had uprisen in Israel." At his suggestion 
the Duke invited the young graduate of Oxford 
to run as the Tory candidate for a seat in Parlia- 
ment from Newark. The wisdom of this selec- 
tion for the accomplishment of the purpose in 
view, was fully demonstrated. 

His personal appearance at this time may 
be thus described : He was somewhat robust. 
His youthful face bore none of those deep furrows 
which have rendered his countenance so remark- 
able in maturer years. But there was the same 
broad intellectual forehead, the massive nose, the 
same anxious eyes and the earnest enthusiasm 
of later years. His look was bright and thought- 
ful and his bearing attractive. He was hand- 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 93 

some and possessed a most intelligent and 
expressive countenance. Says his biographer, 
Mr. Russell : " William Ewart Gladstone was 
now twenty-two years old, with a physical con- 
stitution of unequalled vigor, the prospect of 
ample fortune, great and varied knowledge, and 
a natural tendency to political theorization, and 
an inexhaustible copiousness and readiness of 
speech. In person he was striking and attractive, 
with strongly marked features, a pale complexion, 
abundance of dark hair and eyes of piercing 
lustre. People who judged only by his external 
aspect considered that he was delicate." 

Young Gladstone found two opponents con- 
testing with him to represent Newark in Par- 
liament, W. F. Handley and Sergeant Wilde, 
afterwards Lord Chancellor Truro. The latter 
was an advanced Liberal and had unsuccessfully 
contested the borough in 1829 ^^^ ^^3^) ^^d ^^^ 
in consideration of his defeat received from his 
sympathetic friends a piece of plate inscribed: 
'' By his ardent friends, the Blue electors of the 
borough, who by their exertions and sufferings 
in the cause of independence, largely conduced 
to awaken the attention of the nation to the 
necessity of Reform in Parliament. Upon this 
humble token of respect (contributed in the huur 
of defeat) the Blue electors of Newark inscribe 
their sense of the splendid ability, unwearied 

perseveran^ce, and disinterested public spirit dis- 
6 



94 William E. Gladstone 

played by Sergeant Wilde in maintaining tHe two 
contests of 1829 ^^^ i^S^j in order to emancipate 
the borongh. from political tbraldoms, and restore 
to its inhabitants the free exercise of their long- 
lost rights." Bnt Sergeant Wilde was more 
snccessfnl the following year, 1831, when th^ 
"Reform fever" was at its height, ^nd defeareu 
the Dnke of Newcastle's nominee and became 
member of the Hense of Commons for the 
borongh. These facts made the coming election, 
which followed the passage of the Reform Bill, 
of nnnsnal interest, to those concerned, and the 
struggle would be of a close and determined 
character. 

V Mr. Gladstone entered upon the contest with 
his experienced, able and popular antagonist, with 
much against him, for he was young, unknown 
and untried ; but his youth and personal appear- 
ance and manly bearing were in his favor, 
and these, with his eloquence and ready wit, 
gained for him many friends. His speeches 
demonstrated that he lacked neither arguments, 
nor words wherewith to clothe them. He needed, 
however, to call into requisition all his abilities, 
for Sergeant Wilde was a powerful antagonist, 
and had no thought of being displaced by his 
youthful opponent, " a political stripling," *as 
he called him, without a desperate struggle. 
But Mr. Gladstone had behind him the ducal 
influence and the support of the Red Club, so 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 95 

he entered upon the contest with energy and 
enthusiasm. 

The young Tory's first election address was 
delivered upon this occasion. It was dated 
October 9th, 1832, was all such an address 
should be, and was addressed, " To the worthy 
and independent electors of the borough of 
Newark." It began by saying that he was 
bound in his opinions by no man and no party, 
but that he deprecated the growing unreasonable 
and indiscriminating desire for change then so 
common, but confessed that labor has a right to 
'^ receive adequate remuneration." On the ques- 
tion of human slavery, then greatly agitated, he 
remarked, '' We are agreed that both the physi- 
cal and the moral bondage of the slave are to be 
abolished. The question is as to the order ^ and 
the order only ; now Scripture attacks the moral 
evil befoi^e the corporal one, the corporal one 
'hrough the moral one, and I am content with 
the order which Scripture has established." He 
saw insurmountable obstacles against immedij te 
emancipation, one of which was that the neg ro 
would exchange the evil now affecting him l:>r 
greater ones — for a relapse into deeper deba$.£- 
ment, if not for bloodshed and internal war. 
He therefore advocated a system of Christian 
education, to make the negro slaves fit for 
emancipation and to prepare them for freedom, 
Then, he argued, without bloodshed aad tVi 



96 William E. Gladstone 

violation of property rights, and with unimpaired 
benefit to the negro, the desirable end might be 
reached in the utter extinction of slavery. 

Of this appropriate address, so important in 
the light of coming events, we quote two para- 
graphs in full. In speaking of existing evils 
and the remedies for them, he observed : '' For 
the mitigation of these evils, we must, I think, 
look not only to particular measures, but to the 
restoration of sounder general principles. I 
mean especially that principle on which alone 
the incorporation of Religion with the State in 
our Constitution can be defended ; that the duties 
of governors are strictly and peculiarly re- 
ligious ; and that legislatures, like individuals^ 
are bound to carry throughout their acts the 
spirit of the high truths they have acknowledged. 
Principles are now arrayed against our institu- 
tions ; and not by truckling nor by temporizing — 
not by oppression nor corruption — but by prin- 
ciples they must be met. 

" And now, gentlemen, as regards the en- 
thusiasm with which you have rallied round 
your ancient flag, and welcomed the humble 
representative of those principles whose emblem 
it is, I trust that neither the lapse of time nor the 
seductions of prosperity can ever efface it from my 
memory. To my opponents, my acknowledg- 
ments are due for the good humor and kind- 
ness with which they have received me ; and 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 97 

wliile I would thank my friends for their jealous 
and unwearied exertions in my favor, I briefly 
but emphatically assure them, that if promises 
be an adequate foundation of confidence, or ex- 
perience a reasonable ground of calculation, our 
victory is sure?^ 

The new candidate for Parliamentary honors 
was " heckled," as it is called, at the hustings, 
or was interrupted continually while speaking, 
and questioned by his opponents as to the 
circumstances of his candidature, his father's 
connection with slavery, and his own views of 
capital punishment. From his first appearance 
in Newark, Mr. Gladstone had been subjected to 
these examinations and he stood the ordeal well 
and answered prudently. An instance of this is 
given. A Radical elector, Mr. Gillson, asked 
the young Tory candidate if he was the Duke 
of Newcastle's nominee, and was met by Mr. 
Gladstone demanding the questioner's definition 
of the term " nominee." Mr. Gillson replied 
that he meant a person sent by the Duke of 
Newcastle to be pushed down the throats of the 
voters whether they would or not. But Mr. 
Gladstone was equal to the occasion, and said 
according to that definition he was not the 
nominee of the Duke, but came to Newark by 
the invitation of the Red Club, than whom none 
were more respectable and intelligent. 



g8 William E. Gladstone 

This same Red Club was Conservative, and 
promised to Mr. Gladstone, the thorough Con- 
servative candidate, 650 votes, the whole number 
within its ranks. He also received the promise 
of 240 votes of other electors. This was known 
before the election, so that the result was con- 
fidently predicted. On the nth of December, 
1832, the ^'nomination" was held and the 
polling or election was held on the two following 
days, and Mr. Gladstone was chosen by a con- 
siderable majority, the votes being, Gladstone, 
882 ; Handley, 793 ; Wilde, 719. Sergeant Wilde 
was defeated. 

During the public discussions before the 
election Mr. Gladstone was placed at a great 
disadvantage. There were three candidates to 
be heard from and his speech was to be the last 
in order. Sergeant Wilde made a very lengthy 
speech, which exhausted the patience of his 
hearers, who had already stood for nearly seven 
hours, and showed disinclination to listen to 
another three hours' address, which, from Mr. 
Gladstone's talents, they were far from thinking- 
impossible. The Sergeant was condemned for 
occupying the attention of the electors for such 
an inordinate length of time, but this did not 
prevent a scene of outrageous noise and uproar 
when the Tory candidate rose to speak. The 
important topic was slavery, but Mr. Gladstone 
had not proceeded far when the hooting and 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 99 

hissing drowned his voice so that he found it 
impossible to proceed. When a show of hands 
was demanded it was declared in favor of Mr. 
Handley and Sergeant Wilde, but when the 
election came, it was Mr. Gladstone who tri- 
umphed, as has been seen, and who was sent to 
Parliament as the member from Newark. 

In speaking of the manner in which the 
Parliamentary elections are conducted, an Eng- 
lish writer says: "Since 1832, few of those 
scenes of violence, and even of bloodshed, which 
formerly distinguished Parliamentary elections 
in many English boroughs, have been witnessed. 
Some of these lawless outbreaks were doubtless 
due to the unpopularity of the candidates forced 
upon the electors ; but even in the largest towns — 
where territorial influence had little sway — riots 
occurred upon which we look back with doubtful 
amazement. Men holding strong political views 
have ceased to enforce those views by the aid of 
brickbats and other dangerous missiles. Yet at 
the beginning of the present century such argu- 
ments were very popular. And to the violence 
which prevailed was added the most unblushing 
bribery. Several boroughs, long notorious for 
extensive bribery, have since been disfranchised. 
The practice, however, extended to most towns 
in the kingdom, though it was not always carried 
on in the same open manner. By a long 
established custom, a voter at Hull received a 



100 William E. Gladstone 

donation of two guineas , or four for a plumper. 
In Liverpool men were openly paid for their 
votes ; and Lord Coclirane stated in tlie House 
of Commons that, after his return for Honiton, 
he sent the town-crier round the borough to 
tell the voters to go to the chief banker for 
;^io I OS. each. The great enlargement of the 
constituencies, secured by the Reform Bill of 
1832, did much to put an end to this dis- 
graceful condition of things ; but to a wider 
political enlightenment also, some portion of the 
credit for such a result must be attributed." 

What the friends and foes of the new Tory 
member for Newark thought of his successful 
canvass and election, it is interesting to learn. 
When Mr. Gladstone entered upon the contest 
the question was frequently put, '' Who is Mr. 
Gladstone ? " And it was answered, ^' He is the 
son of the friend of Mr. Canning, the great 
Liverpool merchant. He is, we understand, not 
more than four or five and twenty, but he has 
won golden opinions from all sorts of people, and 
promises to be an ornament to the House of 
Commons." And a few days after his election 
he addressed a meeting of the Constitutional 
Club, at Nottingham, when a Conservative 
journal made the first prophecy as to his future 
great political fame, saying : '^ He will one day 
be classed amongst the most able statesmen in 



Early Parliamentary Experiences loi 

the British Senate." The impression his suc- 
cessful contest made upon the late friends of his 
school-days may be learned from the following : 
A short time before the election Arthur Hallam, 
writing of his friend, '^ the old W. E. 6^.," says : 
" I shall be very glad if he gets in. * * * "V^e 
want such a man as that. In some things he is 
likely to be obstinate and prejudiced ; but he has 
a fine fund of high, chivalrous Tory sentiment, 
and a tongue, moreover, to let it loose with." 
And after the election he exclaims : "And Glad- 
stone has turned out the Sergeant I * * * 
What a triumph for him. He has made his 
reputation by it ; all that remains is to keep 
up to it." 

That one of Mr. Gladstone's Liberal op- 
ponents was impressed by his talent and char- 
acter is shown by the following lines of " descrip- 
tive prophecy, perhaps more remarkable for good 
feeling than for good poetry : " 

'* Yet on one form, whose ear can ne'er refuse 
The Muses' tribute, for he lov'd the Muse, 
(And when the soul the gen'rous virtues, raise, 
A friendly Whig may chant a Tory's praise,) 
Full many a fond expectant eye is bent 
Where Newark's towers are mirror' d in the Trent. 
Perchance ere long to shine in senates first, 
If manhood echo what his youth rehears' d. 
Soon Gladstone's brows will bloom with greener bays 
Than twine the chaplet of the minstrel's lays ; 
Nor heed, while poring o'er each graver line, 
The far, faint music of a flute like mine. 
His was no head contentedly which press 'd 



102 William E. Gladstone 

The downy pillow in bbedient rest, 

Where lazy pilots, with their canvas furl'd, 

Let up the Gades of their mental world ; 

His was no tongue which meanly stoop' d to wear 

The guise of virtue, while his heart was bare ; 

But all he thought through ev'ry action ran ; 

God's noblest work — I've known one honest man.'' 

Mr. Gladstone spoke at Newark in company 
with kis friend, the Earl of Lincoln, shortly after 
his election, when another favorable testimony 
was given, and his address spoken of as "a 
manly, eloquent speech, replete with sound 
constitutional sentiments, high moral feeling, 
and ability of the most distinguished order." 

In commenting upon the result of the elec- 
tion a representative of the press of Newark wrote : 
^' We have been told there was no reaction against 
the Ministry, no reaction in favor of Conservative 
principles. The delusion has now vanished, and 
made room for sober reason and reflection. The 
shadow satisfies no longer, and the return of 
Mr. Gladstone, to the discomfiture of the learned 
Sergeant and his friends, has restored the town 
of Newark to the high rank which it formerly 
held in the estimation of the friends of order and 
good government. We venture to predict that 
the losing candidate in this contest has suffered 
so severely that he will never show his face in 
Newark on a similar occasion." 

But Mr. Gladstone had made bitter political 
enemies already, who were not at all reconciled 



Early parliamentary experiences 103 

to His election, nor pleased with him. That they 
were not at all slow to express unbecomingly 
their bitterness against him, because of their 
unexpected defeat, the following shows from the 
Reflector: '^ Mr. Gladstone is the son of Glad- 
stone of Liverpool, a person who (we are speak- 
ing of the father) had amassed a large fortune by 
West India dealings. In other words, a great 
part of his gold has sprung from the blood of 
black slaves. Respecting the youth himself — 
a person fresh from college, and whose mind is 
as much like a sheet of white foolscap as possible 
— he was utterly unknown. He came recom- 
mended by no claim in the world except the will 
of the Dttke, The Duke nodded unto Newark, 
and Newark sent back the man, or rather the 
boy of his choice. What ! Is this to be, now 
that the Reform Bill has done its work? Are 
sixteen hundred men still to bow down to a 
wooden-headed lord, as the people of Egypt used 
to do to their beasts, to their reptiles, and their 
ropes of onions? There must be something 
wrong — something imperfect. What is it? What 
is wanting ? Why, the Ballot ! If there be a doubt 
of this (and we believe there is a doubt even 
amongst intelligent men) the tale of Newark must 
set the question at rest. Sergeant Wilde was met 
on his entry into the town by almost the whole 
population. He was greeted everywhere, cheered 
everywhere. He v/as received with delight by 



104 William E. Gladstone 

his friends and with good and earnest wishes for 
his success by his nominal foes. The voters for 
Gladstone went up to that candidate's booth (the 
slave-driver, as they called him) with Wilde's 
colors. People who had before voted for Wilde, 
on being asked to give their suffrage said, ' We 
cannot, we dare not. We have lost half our 
business, and shall lose the rest if we go against 
the Duke. We would do anything in our power 
for Sergeant Wilde and for the cause, but we 
cannot starve ! ' Now what say ye, our merry 
men, touching the Ballot ? " 

However Mr," Gladstone had won as we have 
seen the golden opinions of many, and the 
dreams of his more youthful days were realized 
when he was sent to represent the people in the 
House of Commons. 

On the 29th of January, 1833, the first 
Reformed Parliament met, and William E. Glad- 
stone, as the member from Newark, took his seat 
for the first time in ''an assembly which he was 
destined to adorn, delight and astonish for more 
than half a century, and over which for a great 
portion of that period, he was to wield an un- 
equalled and a paramount authority.'' There 
were more than three hundred new members 
in the House of Commons. Lord Althorp led 
the Whigs, who were largely in the majority 
and the Tories constituted a compact minority 
under the skillful leadership of Sir Robert Peel, 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 105 

while the Irish members who were hostile to the 
ministry followed O'Connell. On the 5th of 
February the king attended and delivered the 
speech from the throne in person. This Par- 
liamentary session was destined to become one of 
the most memorable in history for the importance 
of the subjects discussed and disposed of, among 
them the social condition of Ireland, the position 
of the -Irish church, the discontent and misery of 
the poor in England, and slavery in the British 
colonies ; and for the fact that it was the first 
Parliament in which William E. Gladstone sat 
and took part. 

There was no reference made to the subject 
of slavery in the speech from the throne, but the 
ministry resolved to consider it. Mr. Stanley, 
the Colonial Secretary, afterwards fourteenth 
Earl of Derby and Prime Minister, brought forth, 
May 14th, 1833, a series of resolutions in favor 
of the extinction of slavery in the British colonies. 
''All children of slaves, born after the passage 
of the Act, and all children of six years old and 
under, were declared free. But the rest of the 
slaves were to serve a sort of apprenticeship — 
three-fourths of their time was for a certain 
number of years to remain at the disposal of the 
masters ; the other fourth was their own, to be 
paid for at a fixed rate of wages." The planters 
were to be duly compensated out of the national 
treasury. 



io6 William E. Gladstone 

It was during tlie discussion of these reso- 
lutions that Mr. Gladstone made his maiden 
speech in Parliament. It was made in answer 
to what seemed a personal challenge by Lord 
Ho wick, Ex-Under Secretary for the colonies, 
who, opposing gradual emancipation, referred to 
an estate in Demerara, owned by Mr. Gladstone's 
father, for the purpose of showing that great 
destruction of life had taken place in the West 
Indies, owing to the manner in which the slaves 
were worked. In reply to this Mr. Gladstone 
said that he would meet some of Lord Howick's 
statements with denials and others -with ex- 
planations. He admitted that he had a pecu- 
niary interest in the question, but a still deeper 
interest in it as a question of justice, of humanity, 
and of religion. The real cause of the decrease, 
he said, was owing, not to the increased cultiva- 
tion of sugar, but to the very large proportion of 
Africans upon the estate. When it came into 
his father's possession it was so weak, owing to 
the large number of negroes upon it, that he was 
obliged to add two hundred more people to the 
gang. It was well known that negroes were 
imported into Demarara and Trinidad up to a 
later period than into any of the colonies ; and 
he should at a proper time, be able to prove that 
the decrease on his father's plantation, Vreeden 
Hoop, was among the old Africans, and that 
there was an increase going on in the Creole 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 107 

population, wliicH would be a sufficient answer 
to the charges preferred. The quantity of sugar 
produced was small compared to that produced 
on other estates. The cultivation of cotton in 
Demarara had been abandoned, and that of coffee 
much diminished, and the people engaged in 
these sources of production had been employed 
in the cultivation of sugar. Besides in Demarara 
the labor of the same number of negroes, dis- 
tributed over the year, would produce in that 
colony a certain quantity of sugar with less 
injury to the people, than negroes could produce 
in other colonies, working only at the stated 
periods of crops. 

He was ready to concede that the cultiva- 
tion was of a more injurious character than 
others ; and he would ask, Were there not certain 
employments in other countries more destructive 
of life than others ? He would only instance 
those of painting and working in lead mines, 
both of which were well known to have that 
tendency. The noble lord attempted to impugn 
the character of the gentleman acting as manager 
of his father's estates ; and in making the selec- 
tion he had surely been most unfortunate; for 
there was not a person in the colony more re- 
markable for humanity and the kind treatment 
of his slaves than Mr. Maclean. Mr. Gladstone, 
in concluding this able defense of his father, said, 
that he held in his hand two letters from Mr. 



io8 William E. Gladstone 

Maclean, in wliicli lie spoke in tlie kindest terms 
of the negroes under his charge ; described their 
state of happiness, content and healthiness — 
their good conduct and the infrequency of 
severe punishment — and recommended certain 
additional comforts, which he said the slaves 
well deserved. . 

On the 3d of June, on the resumption of the 
debate on the abolition of slavery, Mr. Gladstone 
again addressed the House. He now entered 
more fully into the charges which Lord Howick 
had brought against the management of his 
father's estates in Demarara, and showed their 
groundlessness. When he had discussed the 
existing aspect of slavery in Trinidad, Jamaica 
and other places, he proceeded to deal with the 
general question. He confessed with shame and 
pain that cases of wanton cruelty had occurred 
in the colonies, but added that they would always 
exist, particularly under the system of slavery ; 
and this' was unquestionably a substantial reason 
why the British Legislature and public should 
set themselves in good earnest to provide for its 
extinction ; but he maintained that these in- 
stances of cruelty could easily be explained by the 
West Indians, who represented them as rare and 
isolated cases, and who maintained that the 
ordinary relation of master and slave was one of 
kindliness and not of hostility. He deprecated 
cruelty, and he deprecated slavery, both of which 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 109 

were abhorrent to the nature of Englishmen; 
but, conceding these things, he asked, " Were 
not Englishmen to retain a right to their own 
honestly and legally-acquired property ? " But 
the cruelty did not exist, and he saw no reason 
for the attack which had recently been made 
upon the West India interest. He hoped the 
House would make a point to adopt the principle 
of compensation, and to stimulate the slave to 
genuine and spontaneous industry. If this were 
not done, and moral instruction were not im- 
parted to the slaves, liberty would prove a curse 
instead of a blessing to them. Touching upon 
the property question, and the proposed plans 
for emancipation, Mr. Gladstone said that the 
House might consume its time and exert its 
wisdom in devising these plans, but without 
the concurrence of the Colonial Legislatures 
success would be hopeless. He thought there 
was excessive wickedness in any violent inter- 
ference under the present circumstances. They 
were still in the midst of unconcluded in- 
quiries, and to pursue the measure then under 
discussion, at that moment, was to commit an 
act of great and unnecessary hostility toward 
the island of Jamaica. '' It was the duty of 
the House to place as broad a distinction as 
possible between the idle and the industrious 
slaves, and nothing could be too strong to secure 
the freedom of the latter ; but, with respect to the 



no William E. Gladstone 

idle slaves, no period of emancipation could 
hasten their improvement. If the labors of the 
House should be conducted to "a satisfactory 
issue, it would redound to the honor of the 
nation,' and to the reputation of his Majesty's 
Ministers, whilst it would be delightful to the 
West India planters themselves — for they must 
feel that to hold in bondage their fellow-men 
must always involve the greatest responsibility. 
But let not any man think of carrying this 
measure by force. England rested her power 
not upon physical force, but upon her principles, 
her intellect and virtue ; and if this great 
measure were not placed on a fair basis, or were 
conducted by violence, he should lament it, as a 
signal for the ruin of the Colonies and the down- 
fall of the Empire." The attitude of Mr. Glad- 
stone, as borne out by the tenor of his speech, 
was not one of hostility to emancipation, though 
he was undoubtedly unfavorable to an immediate 
and indiscriminate enfranchisement. He de- 
manded, moreover, that the interests of the 
planters should be duly regarded. 

The result of the consideration of these 
resolutions in the House of Commons was 
that human slavery in the British Colonies was 
abolished, and the sum of twenty million pounds, 
or one hundred million dollars was voted to 
compensate the slave-owners for their losses. 



Early Parliamentary Experiences hi 

Thus was tlie work begun by Wilberforce finally 
crowned with success. 

It is an interesting question how Mr. Glad- 
stone's first efforts in Parliament were received. 
Among his friends his speech was anticipated 
with lively interest. That morning he was rid- 
ing in Hyde Park, on his gray Arabian mare, 
'' his hat, narrow-brimmed, high up on the centre 
of his head, sustained by a crop of thick curly 
hair." He was pointed out to Lord Charles 
Russell by a passer-by who said, " That is 
Gladstone, He is to make his maiden speech 
to-night. It will be worth hearing." 

From the first he appears to have favorably 
impressed the members of the House. Modest in 
demeanor, earnest in manner, and fluent in 
speech, he at once commanded the respect and 
attention of his fellow-members. 

And here is a later testimony as to the early 
impression made upon his colleagues and con- 
temporaries, when he was twenty-nine years of 
age, erroneously stated as thirty-five : '' Mr. Glad- 
stone, the member for Newark, is one of the most 
rising young men on the Tory side of the House. 
His party expect great things from him ; and 
certainly, when it is remembered that his age is 
only thirty-five, the success of the Parliamentary 
efforts he has already made justifies their expec- 
tations. He is well informed on most of the 
subjects which usually occupy the attention of 



112 William E. Gladstone 

the Legislature ; and he is happy in turning his 
information to good account. He is ready on all 
occasions, which he deems fitting ones, with a 
speech in favor of the policy advocated by the 
party with whom he acts. His extempore re- 
sources are ample. Few men in the House can 
improvise better. It does not appear to cost him 
an effort to speak. * * * He is a man of 
very considerable talent, but has nothing ap- 
proaching to genius. His abilities are much 
more the result of an excellent education and of 
mature study than of any prodigality of nature 
in the distribution of her mental gifts. / have 
no idea that he will ever acquire the reputation of 
a great statesman. His views are not sufficiently 
profound or enlarged for that ; his celebrity in the 
House of Commons will chiefly depend on his 
readiness and dexterity as a debater^ iit conjunc- 
tion with the excellence of his elocution^ and the 
gracefulness of his manner when speaking. '^ * * 
His style is polished, but has no appearance of 
the effect of previous preparation. He displays 
considerable acuteness in replying to an oppo- 
nent ; he is quick in his perception of anything 
vulnerable in the speech to which he replies, and 
happy in laying the weak point bare to the gaze 
of the House. He now and then indulges in 
sarcasm, which is, in most cases, very felicitous. 
He is plausible even when most in error. When 
it suits himself or his party he can apply himself 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 113 

with tlie strictest closeness to the real point at 
issue ; when to evade the point is deemed most 
politic, no man can wander from it more widely." 

How far these estimates were true we leave 
to the reader to determine, after the perusal of 
his life, and in the light of subsequent events. 

Mr. Gladstone, after his maiden speech, took 
an active part in the business of the House 
during the remainder of the session of 1833. 
He spoke upon the question of bribery and cor- 
ruption at Liverpool, and July 8th made an 
elaborate speech on the Irish Church Temporali- 
ties Bill. The condition of Ireland was then, as 
now, one of the most urgent questions confront- 
ing the Ministry. Macaulay " solemnly declared 
that he would rather live in the midst of many 
civil wars that he had read of than in some parts 
of Ireland at this moment." Sydney Smith 
humorously described "those Irish Protestants 
whose shutters are bullet-proof; whose dinner- 
table is regularly spread out with knife, fork, and 
cocked pistol ; salt-cellar and powder-flask ; who 
sleep in sheet-iron nightcaps ; who have fought so 
often and so nobly before their scullery- door, and 
defended the parlor passage as bravely as Leon- 
idas defended the pass of Thermopylse." Crime 
was rife and to remedy the serious state of affairs 
a stringent Coercion Bill was introduced by the 
government. Mr. Gladstone voted silently for 
the bill which became a law. 



114 William E. Gladstone 

The other bill introduced was that upon the 
Irish Church, and proposed the reduction of the 
number of Protestant Episcopal Bishops in Ire- 
land and the curtailment of the income of the 
Church. This bill Mr. Gladstone opposed in a 
speech, and he voted against it, but it was passed. 

It was in the following session that Mr. 
Hume introduced his ^' ' Universities Admission 
Bill,' designed to enable Nonconformists of all 
kinds to enter the universities, by removing 
the necessity of subscribing to the thirty-nine 
articles at matriculation." In the debate that 
followed Mr. Gladstone soon gave evidence that 
he knew more about the subject than did the 
author of the bill. In speaking against the bill, 
he said in part, "The whole sj^stem of the 
university and of its colleges, both in study and 
in discipline, aimed at the formation of a moral 
character, and that aim could not be attained if 
every student were at liberty to exclude himself 
from the religious training of the place." And 
in reply to a remark made by Lord Palmerston 
in reference to the students going " from wine to 
prayers, and from prayers to wine," Mr. Glad- 
stone replied, he did not believe that in their 
most convivial moments they were unfit to enter 
the house of prayer. This bill was also passed. 

It might have been expected that Mr. Glad- 
stone's active participation in the debates in the 
House of Commons, and the practical ability and 



Early Parliamentary Experiences 115 

debating power he manifested would not escape 
the attention of the leaders of his party. But the 
recognition of his merit came sooner than could 
have been expected. It became evident, towards 
the close of 1834 that the downfall of the Liberal 
Ministry was near at hand. Lord Althorp, who 
had kept the Liberals together, was transferred 
to the House of Lords, and the growing unpopu- 
larity of the Whigs did the rest. The Ministry 
under Lord Melbourne was dismissed by the 
king, and a new Cabinet formed by Sir Robert 
Peel. The new Premier offered Mr. Gladstone 
the office of Junior Lord of the Treasury, which 
was accepted. 

Truly has an eminent writer said : '' When 
a Prime Minister in difficulties, looking about for 
men to fill the minor offices of his administration, 
sees among his supporters a clever and comely 
young man, eloquent in speech, ready in debate, 
with a safe seat, an ample fortune, a high reputa- 
tion at the university, and a father who wields 
political influence in an important constituency, 
he sees a Junior Lord of the Treasury made 
ready to his hand." 

Appealing to his constituents at Newark, 
who, two years before, had sent him to Parlia- 
ment, he was re-elected. Mr. Handley having 
retired. Sergeant Wilde was elected with Mr. 
Gladstone without opposition. Mr. Gladstone 
was '' chaired," or drawn by horses through the 



ii6 William E. Gladstone 

town, seated on a chair, after tlie election, and 
then addressed the assembled people to the num- 
ber of 6,000, his speech being received with 
" deafening cheers." 

Shortly after Parliament assembled, Mr. 
Gladstone was promoted to the office of Under- 
Secretary for the Colonies. His ofB.cial chief was 
Ivord Aberdeen, afterwards Prime Minister ; and 
thns began a relation which was destined to 
greatly affect the destinies of both statesmen. 

Mr. Gladstone gave ample proof in his new 
office of his great abilities and untiring energies. 

In March he presented to the House his first 
bill, which was for the better regulation of the 
transportation of passengers in merchant vessels 
to the continent and to the Islands of North 
America. This bill, which contained many 
humane provisions, was very favorably received. 
The new Parliament, which met February 10, 
1835, contained a considerable Liberal majority. 
The old House of Commons had been destroyed 
by fire during the recess, and the new Commons 
reassembled in the chamber which had been the 
House of Lords, and for the first time there was 
a gallery for reporters in the House. 

" A standing order still existed, which for- 
bade the publication of the debates, but the 
reporters' gallery was a formal and visible recog- 
nition of the people's right to know what their 
representatives were doing in their name." 



Early Parliamentary experiences 117 

However, tHe new Ministry was but short-lived, 
for Sir Robert Peel resigned April 8tli, and 
Mr. Gladstone retired with his chief. 

Mr. Gladstone spent the days of his retire- 
ment from ministerial office partly in study, and 
partly in recreation. Being free to follow thj 
bent of his own inclinations, he ordered his life 
according to his own ideals. He lived in cham 
bers at the Albany, pursued the same steady 
course of work, proper recreation and systematic 
devotion, which he had marked out at Oxford. 
He freely went into society, dined out frequently, 
and took part in musical parties, much to the 
edification of his friends who were charmed with 
the beauty and cultivation of his rich baritone. 
His friend Monckton Milnes had established 
himself in London and collected around him a 
society of young men, interested in politics and 
religion, and whom he entertained Sunday even- 
ings. But this arrangement '' unfortunately," as 
Mr. Milnes said, excluded from these gatherings 
the more serious members, such as Acland and 
Gladstone. Mr. Milnes expressed his opinion of 
such self-exclusion in these words : ''I really 
think when people keep Friday as a fast, they 
might make a feast of Sunday." But Mr. 
Gladstone evidently was not of this opinion, and 
remained away from these Lord's Day parties. 
However at other times he met his friends, and 
received them at his own rooms in the Albany, 



ii8 ■ William E. Gladstone 

and on oae memorable occasion entertained 
Wordsworth at breakfast and a few admirers 
of this distinguished guest. 

Mr. Gladstone's relaxations were occasional, 
and the most of his time was devoted to his 
Parliamentary duties and study. His constant 
companions were Homer and Dant^, and he at 
this time, it is recorded, read the whole of St. 
Augustine, in twenty-two octavo volumes. He 
was a constant attendant upon public worship at 
St. James', Piccadilly, and Margaret Chapel, and 
a careful critic of sermons. At the same time 
he diligently applied himself to the work of a 
private member of the House of Commons, work- 
ing on committees and taking constant part in 
debate. 

In 1836 the question of slavery again came 
up before Parliament. This time the question 
was as to the working of the system of negro 
apprenticeship, which had taken the place of 
slavery. It was asserted that the system was 
only slavery under another name. He warmly 
and ably defended again the West Indian 
planters. He pleaded that many of the planters 
were humane men, and defended also the honor 
of his relatives connected with the traffic so much 
denounced, when it was assailed. He contended 
that while the evils of the system had been 
exaggerated, all mention of its advantages had 
been carefully withheld. The condition of the 



Early Parliamentary Expei^iences 119 

negroes was improving. He deprecated the 
attempt made to renew and perpetuate the 
system of agitation at the expense of candor and 
truth. He also at this time spoke on support 
of authority and order in the government of 
Canada, and on Church Rates, dwelling upon 
the necessity of national religion to the security 
of a state. Mr. Gladstone was not only a Tory 
but a High Churchman. 

King William IV died June 20, 1837, ^^^^ 
was succeeded by Queen Victoria. A general 
election ensued. The Parliament, which had 
been prorogued by the young queen in person, 
was dissolved on the 17th of July. Mr. Glad- 
stone, without his consent, was nominated to 
represent Manchester in the House, but was 
re-elected for Newark without opposition. He 
then turned his steps towards Scotland, '' to see 
what grouse he could persuade into his bag.'^ 
The new Parliament met October 20th, but no 
business of importance came before it until after 
the Christmas holidays. 

In 1838 a bill was presented in both Houses 
of Parliament for the immediate abolition of negro 
apprenticeship. Many harrowing details of the 
cruelties practiced were cited. Mr. Gladstone 
returned to the championship of the planters 
with increased power and success. His long, 
eloquent and powerful speech of March 30th, 
although on the unpopular side of the question, 



I20 William E. Gladstone 

is regarded as having so greatly enhanced his 
reputation as to bring him to the front rank 
among Parliamentary debaters. Having impas- 
sionately defended the planters from the exag- 
gerated charges made against them, he further 
said: "You consumed forty-five millions of 
pounds of cotton in 1837 which proceeded from 
free labor; and, proceeding from slave labor, 
three hundred and eighteen millions of pounds ! 
And this, while the vast regions of India afford 
the means of obtaining at a cheaper rate, and by 
a slight original outlay, to facilitate transport, all 
that you can require. If, Sir, the complaints 
against the general body of the West Indians 
had been substantiated, I should have deemed it 
an unworthy artifice to attempt diverting the atteuT 
tion of the House from the question immediately 
at issue, by merely proving that delinquencies 
existed in other quarters ; but feeling as I do that 
those charges have been overthrown in debate, I 
think myself entitled and bound to show how 
capricious are the honorable gentlemen in the dis- 
tribution of their sympathies among those differ- 
ent objects which call for their application." 

Mr. Gladstone, '^ having turned the tables 
upon his opponents," concluded by demanding 
justice, and the motion before the House was 
rejected. 

About one month later Rev» Samuel Wilber- 
force, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and of Win- 



Early Parliamentary Experiences i^j 

Chester, wrote to Mr. Gladstone : " It would be an 
affectation in you, which you are above, not to 
know that few young men have the weight you 
have in the House of Commons, and are gaining 
rapidly throughout the country. Now I do not 
wish to urge you to consider this as a talent for 
the use of which you must render an account, for 
so I know you do esteem it, but what I want to 
urge upon you is that you should calmly look far 
before you; see the degree of weight and in- 
fluence to which you may fairly, if God spares 
your life and powers, look forward in future years, 
and thus act now with a view to then. There is 
no height to which you may not fairly rise in 
this country. If it pleases God to spare us 
violent convulsions and the loss of our liberties, 
you may at a future day wield the whole govern- 
ment of this land ; and if this should be so, of 
what extreme moment will your past steps then 
be to the real usefulness of your high station. 
* * * Almost all our public men act from the 
merest expediency. * * * j ^ould have you 
view yourself as one who may become the head 
of all the better feelings of this country, the 
maintainer of its Church and of its liberties, and 
who must now be fitting himself for this high 
vocation. * * * I think my father's life so 
beautifully shows that a deep and increasing 
personal religion must be the root of that firm 



123 



William E. Gladstone 



and unwearied consistency in rights which I have 
ventured thus to press upon you." 

Mr. Gladstone began his Parliamentary life 
as a Tory. Later he developed into a Liberal, a 
Radical, and yet there is not one who conscien- 
tiously doubts his utter honesty. His life has 
been that of his century — progressive, liberalj 
humanitarian in its trend. 




Grattan 



CHAPTER IV 
BOOK ON Church and State 

^^ 4^E have now followed Mr. Gladstone in 
gjkf his course until well on the way in 
^ ^ his political career, and yet he is but 
twenty-eight years of age. His per- 
sonal appearance in the House of 
Commons at this early stage of his Parliamentary 
life is thus described : " Mr. Gladstone's appear- 
ance and manners are much in his favor. He is 
a fine looking man. He is about the usual 
height and of good figure. His countenance is 
mild and pleasant, and has a highly intellectual 
expression. His eyes are clear and quick. His 
eyebrows are dark and rather prominent. There 
is not a dandy in the House but envies what 
Truefit would call his ' fine head of jet-black hair.' 
It is always carefully parted from the crown 
downwards to his brow, where it is tastefully 
shaded. His features are small and regular, 
and his complexion must be a very unworthy 
witness if he does not possess an abundant stock 
of health. 

123 



124 William E. Gladstone 

" Mr. Gladstone's gesture is varied, but not 
violent. When lie rises lie generally puts botli 
his hands behind his back, and having there 
suffered them to embrace each other for a short * 
time, he unclasps them and allows them to drop 
on either side. They are not permitted to remain 
long in that locality before you see them again 
closed together and hanging down before him. 
Their reunion is not suffered to last for any 
length of time. Again a separation takes place, 
and now the right hand is seen moving up and 
down before him. Having thus exercised it a 
little, he thrusts it into the pocket of his coat, 
and then orders the left hand to follow its ex- 
ample. Having granted them a momentary 
repose there, they are again put into gentle 
motion, and in a few seconds they are seen repos- 
ing vis-a-vis on his breast. He moves his face 
and body from one direction to another, not for- 
getting to bestow a liberal share of his attention 
on his own party. He is always listened to with 
much attention by the House, and appears to be 
highly respected by men of all parties. He is a 
man of good business habits ; of this he furnished 
abundant proof when Under-Secretary for the 
Colonies, during the short-lived administration of 
Sir Robert Peel.'' 

From this pen picture and other like notices 
of Mr. Gladstone he must, at that time, have at- 
tained great distinction and attracted a good deal 



Book on Church and State 125 

of attention for one so young, and from that day 
to this he has commanded the attention not only 
of the British Senate and people, but of the world 
at large. And why ? may we ask, unless be- 
cause of his modest manner and distinguished 
services, his exalted ability and moral worth. 

" The House of Commons was his ground,'' 
writes Justin McCarthy. " There he was always 
seen to the best advantage." 

Nevertheless, Mr. Gladstone wrote with the 
same earnestness and ability with which he 
spoke. It was early in life that he distinguished 
himself as an author, as well as an orator and 
debater in the House of Commons. And it was 
most natural for him to write upon the subject of 
the Church, for not only his education led him to 
the consideration of such themes, but it was with- 
in his sphere as an English statesman, for the 
law of the land provided for the union of the 
Church and State. It was in 1838, when he was 
not thirty years of age, that he wrote his first 
book and stepped at once to the front rank as an 
author. He had ever been a staunch defender of 
the Established Church and his first appearance 
in literature was by a remarkable work in defense 
of the State Church entitled, " The State in its 
Relations with the Church. " The treatise is thus 
dedicated : " Inscribed to the University of Ox- 
ford, tried and not found wanting through the 
vicissitudes of a thousand years ; in the belief 



126 William E. Gladstone 

tliat slie is providentially designed to be a foun- 
tain of blessings, spiritual, social and intellectual, 
to this and other countries, to present and future 
times ; and in the hope that the temper of these 
pages may be found not alien from her own." 

This first published book of Mr, Gladstone's 
was due to the perception that the status of the 
Church, in its connection with the secular power^ 
was about to undergo the severe assaults of the 
opponents of the Union, There was growing 
opposition to the recognition of the Episcopal 
Church as the Church of the State and to tax- 
ation of people of other religious beliefs for its 
support ; and this objection was to the recognition 
and support of any Church by the State, What 
is called the " American idea" — the entire separa- 
tion of the Church and State — or as enunciated 
first by Roger Williams in 1636, in Rhode Island, 
that the magistrate should have authority in 
civil affairs only, was becoming more and more 
the doctrine of dissenters. Preparations were 
already being made for attacking the national 
establishment of religion, and with all the fervor 
springing from conviction and a deep-seated 
enthusiasm, he came forward to take part in the 
controversy on Church and State, and as a de- 
fender of the Established or Episcopal Church of 
England. 

Some of the positions assumed in this work 
have since been renounced as untenable, but its 



Book on Church and State 127; 

ability as a whole, its breadth and its learning 
could not be denied. It then created a great 
sensation, and has since been widely discussed. 
After an examination and a defense of the theory 
of the connection between Church and State, Mr. 
Gladstone thus summarizes his principal reasons 
for the maintenance of the Church establishment : 

" Because the Government stands with us in 
a paternal relation to the people, and is bound in 
all things not merely to consider their existing 
tastes, but the capabilities and ways of their im- 
provement ; because it has both an intrinsic com- 
petency and external means to amend and assist 
their choice ; because to be in accordance with 
God's mind and will, it must have a religion, and 
because to be in accordance with its conscience, 
that religion must be the truth, as held by it 
under the most solemn and accumulated respon- 
sibilities ; because this is the only sanctifying 
and preserving principle of society, as well as to 
the individual, that particular benefit, without 
which all others are worse than valueless ; we 
must, therefore, disregard the din of political con- 
tention and the pressure of novelty and moment- 
ary motives, and in behalf of our regard to man, 
as well as of our allegiance to God, maintain 
among ourselves, where happily it still exists, 
the union between the Church and the State." 

Dr. Russell in the following quotation not 
only accounts for this production from the pen of 



128 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone, but gives also an outline of the 
argument : 

^' Naturally and profoundly religious * * * 
Mr. Gladstone conceived that those who professed 
the warmest regard for the Church of England 
and posed as her most strenuous defenders, were 
inclined to base their championship on mistaken 
grounds and to direct their efforts towards even 
mischievous ends. To supply a more reasonable 
basis for action and to lead this energy into more 
profitable channels were the objects which he 
proposed to himself in his treatise of 1838. The 
distinctive principle of the book was that the 
State had a conscience. This being admitted, 
the issue was this : whether the State in its best 
condition, has such a conscience as can take cog- 
nizance of religious truth and error, and in par- 
ticular whether the S^ate of the United Kingdom 
at that time was, or was not, so far in that con- 
dition as to be under an obligation to give an 
active and an exclusive support to the established 
religion of the country. 

'' The work attempted to survey the actual 
state of the relations between the State and the 
Church ; to show from history the ground which 
had been defined for the National Church at the 
Reformation ; and to inquire and determine 
whether the existing state of things was worth 
preserving and defending against encroachment 
from whatever quarter. This question it decided 



^ 



Book on Church and State 129 

empliatically in the affirmative. Faithful to 
logic and to its theory, the book did not shrink 
from applying them to the external case of the 
Irish Church, It did not disguise the difficulties 
of the case, for the author was alive to the 
paradox which it involved. But the one master 
idea of the system, that the State as it then 
stood was capable in this age, as it had been 
in ages long gone by, of assuming beneficially a 
responsibility for the inculcation of a particular 
religion, carried him through all. His doctrine 
was that the Church, as established by law, was 
to be maintained for its truth ; that this was the 
only principle in which it could be properly and 
permanently upheld ; that this principle, if good 
in England, was good also for Ireland ; that 
tfuth is of all possessions the most precious to 
the soul of man ; and that to remove this price- 
less treasure from the view and the reach of the 
Irish people w^ould be meanly to purchase their 
momentary favor at the expense of their perma- 
nent interests, and would be a high offense 
against our own sacred obligations." 

We quote also from the opening chapter of 
the second volume of this work, which treats of 
the connection subsisting between the State of 
the United Kingdom and the Church of England 
and Ireland, and shows Mr. Gladstone's views at 
that period of his life upon the relations of the 
Church as affecting Ireland in particular. The 



I30 William E. Gladstone 

passage .also indicates the changes that have 
taken place in his mind since the time when he 
defended these principles. It also shows the 
style in which this remarkable book was written 
and enables us to compare, not only his opinions 
now and then, but his style in writing then with 
his style now. 

" The Protestant legislature of the British 
Empire maintains in the possession of the Church 
property of Ireland the ministers of a creed pro- 
fessed, according to the parliamentary enumera- 
tion of 1835, ^y one-ninth of its population, 
regarded with partial favor by scarcely another 
ninth, and disowned by the remaining seven. 
And not only does this anomaly meet us full in 
view, but we have also to consider and digest the 
fact, that the maintenance of this Church for 
near three centuries in Ireland has been contem- 
poraneous with a system of partial and abusive 
government, varying in degree of culpability, but 
rarely, until of later years, when we have been 
forced to look at the subject and to feel it, to be 
exempted in common fairness from the reproach 
of gross inattention (to say the very least) to the 
interests of a noble but neglected people. 

" But, however formidable at first sight the 
admissions, which I have no desire to narrow or 
to qualify, may appear, they in no way shake the 
foregoing arguments. They do not change the 
nature of truth and her capability and destiny to 



Book on Church and State r.^i 

benefit mankind. They do not relieve Govern- 
ment of its responsibility, if they show that that 
responsibility was once nnfelt and nnsatisiied. 
They place the legislature of the country in the 
condition, as it were, of one called to do penance 
for past offences ; but duty remains unaltered 
and imperative, and abates nothing of her de- 
mand on our services. It is undoubtedly com- 
petent, in a constitutional view, to the Govern- 
ment of this country to continue the present 
disposition of Church property in Ireland. It 
appears not too much to assume that our imperial 
legislature has been qualified to take, and has 
taken in point of fact, a sounder view of religious 
truth than the majority of the people of Ireland 
in their destitute and uninstructed state. We 
believe, accordingly, that that which we place 
before them is, whether they know it or not, 
calculated to be beneficial to them ; and that if 
they know it not now, they will know it when it 
is presented to them fairly. Shall we, then, pur- 
chase their applause at the expense of their sub- 
stantial, nay, their spiritual interests ? 

'' It does, indeed, so happen that there are 
powerful motives on the other side concurring 
with that which has here been represented as 
paramount. In the first instance we are not 
called upon to establish a creed, but only to 
maintain an existing legal settlement, when our 
constitutional fight is undoubted. In the second. 



132 William E. Gladstone 

political considerations tend strongly to recom- 
mend tHat maintenance. A common form of 
faitli binds the Irish Protestants to ourselves, 
while they, upon the other hand, are fast linked 
to Ireland ; and thus they supply the most 
natural bond of connection between the countries. 
But if England, by overthrowing th^ir Church, 
should weaken their moral position, they would 
be no longer able, perhaps no longer willing, 
to counteract the desires of the majority tending, 
under the direction of their leaders (however, by 
a wise policy, revocable from that fatal course) to 
what is termed national independence. Pride 
and fear, on the one hand, are therefore bearing 
up against more immediate apprehension and 
di£6.culty on the other. And with some men 
these may be the fundamental considerations ; 
but it may be doubted whether such men will not 
flinch in some stage of the contest, should its 
aspect at any moment become unfavorable." 

Of course the opponents of Mr. Gladstone's 
views, as set forth in his book, strongly combated 
his theories. They replied that '' the taxation of 
the State is equal upon all persons, and has for 
its object their individual, social and political 
welfare and safety ; but that the taxation of one 
man for the support of his neighbor's religion 
does not come within the limits of such taxation, 
and is, in fact, unjust and inequitable.'^ 



Book on Church and State 133 

It was no easy task for Mr. Gladstone, witli 
all his parliamentary duties, to aspire to author- 
ship, and carry his book through the press. In 
preparing for publication he passed through all 
the agonies of the author, but was nobly helped 
by his friend, James R. Hope, who afterwards 
became Mr. Hope-Scott, Q. C, who read and 
criticised his manuscript and saw the sheets 
through the press. Some of the letters from the 
young Defender of the Faith to his friend con- 
tain much that is worth preserving. "We give 
some extracts. 

He writer : ^' If you let them lie just as they 
are, turning the leaves one by one, I think you 
will not find the manuscript very hard to make 
out, though it is strangely cut in pieces and 
patched. 

" I hope its general tendency will meet with 
your approval ; but a point about which I am in 
doubt, and to which I request your particular 
attention, is, whether the work or some of the 
chapters are not so deficient in clearness and 
arrangement as to require being absolutely re- 
written before they can with propriety be pub- 
lished. * * * Between my eyes and my 
business I fear it would be hard for me to re-write, 
but if I could put it into the hands of any other 
person who could, and who wou!d extract from 
my papers anything worth havitig, that might do. 



134 William E. Gladstone 

" As regards myself, if I go on and publisli, 
I shall be qnite prepared to find some persons 
surprised, but this, if it should prove so, cannot 
be helped. I shall not knowingly exaggerate 
anything ; and when a man expects to be washed 
overboard he must tie himself with a rope to the 
mast. 

" I shall trust to your friendship for frank- 
ness in the discharge of your irksome task. 
Pray make verbal corrections without scruple 
where they are needed.'^ 

Again : "I thank you most cordially for 
^our remarks, and I rejoice to find you act 
50 entirely in the spirit I had anticipated. I 
trust you will continue to speak with freedom, 
which is the best compliment as well as the best 
service you can render me. 

^' I think it very probable that you may find 
that V and VI require quite as rigorous treat- 
ment as II, and I am very 'desirous to set both 
my mind and eyes at liberty before I go to the 
Continent, which I can now hardly expect to do 
before the first week in September. This inter- 
val I trust would suf6.ce unless you find that the 
other chapters stand in equal need. 

" I entirely concur with your view regarding 
the necessity o*^ care and of not grudging labor 
in a matter so iLiportant and so responsible as an 
endeavor to raist one of the most momentous 



Book on Church and State 135 

controversies wHicli lias ever aofit^ed Human 



opinion.-' 

Again: "Thanks for your letter. I Have 
been pretty Hard at work, and Have done a good 
deal, especially on V. SometHing yet remains. 
I must make inquiry about tHe law of excom- 
munication. * * * I Have made a very stupid 
classification, and Have now amended it ; instead 
of faitH, discipline and practice, wHat I meant 
was tHe rule of faitH, discipline, and tHe bearing 
of particular doctrines upon practice. 

'' I send back also I and II tHat you may see 
wHat I Have done." 

THe work was successfully issued in tHe 
autumn of 1838, and passed rapidly tHrougH 
tHree editions. How it was received it would be 
interesting to inquire. WHile His friends ap- 
plauded, even His opponents testified to tHe 
ability it displayed. On tHe authority of Lord 
HougHton, it is said that Sir Robert Peel, tHe 
young author's political leader, on receiving a 
copy as a gift from His follower, read it with 
scornful curiosity, and, throwing it on the floor, 
exclaimed with truly official Horror : " With such 
a career before Him, why should he write books ? 
THat young man will ruin His fine political 
career if He persists in writing trash like this." 
However, others gave the book a Heartier recep- 
tion. Crabb Robinson writes in His diary: "I 



136 William E. Gladstone 

went to Wordsworth this forenoon. He was ill 
in bed. I read Gladstone's book to Him." 

December 13, 1838, Baron Bunsen wrote: 
*'Last night at eleven, when I came from the 
Duke, Gladstone's book was lying on my table, 
having come out at seven o'clock. It is a book 
of the time, a great event — the first book since 
Burke that goes to the bottom of the vital 
question ; far above his party and his time. I 
sat up till after midnight, and this morning I 
continued until I had read the whole. Gladstone 
is the first man in England as to intellectual 
power, and he has heard higher tones than any 
one else in the land." And again to Dr. Arnold 
he writes in high praise of the book, but lament- 
ing its author's entanglement in Tractarian 
traditions, adds : " His genius will soon free 
itself entirely and fly towards Heaven with its 
own wings." 

Sir Henry Taylor wrote to the Poet Southey : 
^^ I am reading Gladstone's book, which I shall 
send you if he has not. * * * His party be- 
gin to think of him as the man who will one day 
be at their head and at the head of the govern- 
ment^ and certainly no man of his standing has 
yet appeared who seems likely to stand in his way. 
Two wants, however, may lie across his political 
career — want of robust health and want of 
flexibility." 



Book on Church and State 137 

Cardinal Newman wrote : " Gladstone's book, 
as you see, is making a sensation." And again : 
" The Times is again at poor Gladstone. Really 
I feel as if I could do anytHing for him. I 
have not read his book, but its consequences 
speak for it. Poor fellow ! it is so noble a thing." 

Lord Macaulay, in the Edinburgh Review^ 
April, 1839, i^ l^is well-known searching criticism, 
while paying high tribute to the author's talents 
and character, said: "We believe that we do 
him no more than justice when we say that his 
abilities and demeanor have obtained for him the 
respect and good will of all parties. * * * 
That a young politician should, in the intervals 
afforded by his Parliamentary avocations, have 
constructed and propounded, with much study 
and mental toil, an original theory, on a great 
problem in politics, is a circumstance which, 
abstracted from all considerations of the sound- 
ness or unsoundness of his opinions, must be 
considered as highly creditable to him. We 
certainly cannot wish that Mr. Gladstone's doc- 
trine may become fashionable among public men. 
But we heartily wish that his laudable desire to 
penetrate beneath the surface of questions, and 
to arrive, by long and intent meditation, at the 
knowledge of great general laws, were much more 
fashionable than we at all expect it to become." 

It was in this article, by Lord Macaulay, 
that the now famous word^ occurred which the 



138 William E. Gladstone 

former Conservative friends of Mr. Gladstone 
delight to recall in view of his change of political 
opinions : " The writer of this volume is a young 
man of unblemished character and of distin- 
guished parliamentary talents ; the rising hope 
of those stern and unbending Tories who follow, 
reluctantly and cautiously, a leader whose ex- 
perience and eloquence are indispensable to them, 
but whose cautious temper and moderate opinions 
they abhor. It would not be strange if Mr. 
Gladstone were one of the most unpopular men 
in England." 

Higginson writes : " The hope of the stern 
and unbending Tories has for years been the un- 
questioned leader of English Liberals, and though 
he may have been at times as unpopular as 
• Macaulay could have predicted, the hostility has 
come mainly from the ranks of those who were 
thus early named as his friends. But whatever 
may have been Mr. Gladstone's opinions or 
affiliations, whoever may have been his friends 
or foes, the credit of surpassing ability has always 
been his." 

It was remarked by Lord Macaulay that the 
entire theory of Mr. Gladstone's book rested upon 
one great fundamental proposition, namely, that 
the propagation of religious truth is one of the 
chief ends of government as government ; and he 
proceeded to combat this doctrine. He granted 
that government was designed to protect our 



Book on Church and State 139 

persons and our property, but declined to receive 
the doctrine of paternal government, until a 
government be sbown that loved its subjects, as a 
father loves his child, and was as superior in 
intelligence to its subjects as a father was to his 
children. Lord Macaulay then demonstrated, by 
appropriate illustrations, the fallacy of the theory 
that every society of individuals with any power 
whatever, is under obligation as such society to 
profess a religion ; and that there could be unity 
of action in large bodies without unity of religious 
views. Persecutions would naturally follow, or 
be justifiable in an association where Mr. Glad- 
stone's views were paramount. It would be 
impossible to conceive of the circumstances in 
which it would be right to establish by law, as 
the one exclusive religion of the State, the 
religion of the minority. The religious teaching 
w^hich the sovereign ought officially to counte- 
nance and maintain is that from which he, in 
his conscience, believes that the people will 
receive the most benefit with the smallest mix- 
ture, of evil. It is not necessarily his own 
religious belief that he will select. He may 
prefer the doctrines of the Church of England to 
those of the Church of Scotland, but he would 
not force the former upon the inhabitants of 
Scotland. The critic raised no objections, though 
he goes on to state the conditions under which 
an established Church might be retained with 



I40 William E. Gladstone 

advantage. There are many institutions wHicli, 
being set up, ouglit not to be rudely pulled down. 
On the i4tli of June, 1839, the question of 
National Education was introduced in the House 
of Commons by the Ministry of the day. Lord 
Stanley opposed the proposal of the government 
in a powerful speech, and offered an amendment 
to this effect : " That an address be presented to 
her Majesty to rescind the order in council for 
constituting the proposed Board of Privy Council." 
The position of the government was defended by 
Lord Morpeth, who, while he held his own views 
respecting the doctrines of the Roman Catholics 
and also respecting Unitarian tenets, he main- 
tained that as long as the State thought it proper 
to employ Roman Catholic sinews, and to finger 
Unitarian gold, it could not refuse to extend to 
those by whom it so profited the blessings of 
education. Speeches were also made by Lord 
Ashley, Mr. Buller, Mr. O'Connell and others, 
and in the course of debate reference was freely 
made to Mr Gladstone's book on Church and 
State. Finally Mr. Gladstone rose and remarked, 
that he would not flinch from a word he had 
uttered or written upon religious subjects, and 
claimed the right to contrast his principles, and 
to try results, in comparison with those professed 
by Lord John Russell, and to ascertain the effects 
of both upon the institutions of the country, so 
far as they operated upon the Established Church 



Book on Church and State 141 

in England, in Scotland and in Ireland. It was 
at this time that a very remarkable scene was 
witnessed in the House. Turning upon Mr. 
O'Connell, who had expressed his great fondness 
for statistics, Mr. Gladstone said the use he had 
made of them reminded him of an observation of 
Mr. Canning's, '' He had a great aversion to hear 
of a fact in debate, but what he most distrusted 
was a figure." He then proceeded to show the 
inadequacy of the figures presented by Mr. 
O'Connell. In reply to Lord Morpeth's declara- 
tion concerning the duty of the State to provide 
education for Dissenters so long as it fingered 
their gold, Mr. Gladstone said that if the State 
was to be regarded as having no other functions 
than that of representing the mere will of the 
people as to religious tenets, he admitted the 
truth of his principle, but not that the State 
could have a conscience. It was not his habit to 
revile religion in any form, but he asked what 
ground there was for restricting his lordship's 
reasoning to Christianity. He referred to the 
position held by the Jews upon this educational 
question, and read to the House an extract from 
a recent petition as follows : " Your petitioners 
feel the deepest gratitude for the expression of 
her Majesty's most gracious wish that the youth 
of the country should be religiously brought up, 
and the rights of conscience respected, while they 
earnestly hope that the education of the people, 



142 William e. Gladstone 

Jewisli and Christian, will be sedulously con- 
nected with a due regard to the Holy Scriptures." 

Mr. Gladstone very pertinently asl£ed how 
the education of the Jewish people, who con- 
sidered the Nev/ Testament an imposture, was 
^' to be sedulously connected with a due regard 
to the Holy Scriptures," which consisted of the 
Old and New Testaments ? To oblige the Jewish 
children to read the latter would be directly con- 
trary to the views of the gentlemen on the other 
side of the House. He would have no child 
forced to do so, but he protested against paying 
money from the treasury of the State to men 
whose business it was to inculcate erroneous 
doctrines. The debate was concluded, and the 
government carried its motion by a very small 
majority. Two years later, when the Jews' Civil 
Disabilities Bill was before Parliament, Mr. Glad- 
stone again took the unpopular side in the debate 
and opposed the Bill, which was carried in the 
House of Commons but defeated in the House of 
Lords. 

Mr. Gladstone published, in 1840, another 
work, entitled " Church Principles Considered in 
their Results." It was supplementary to his 
former book in defense of Church and State, and 
was written " beneath the shades of Hagley," 
the house of Lord and Lady Lyttelton, and 
dedicated " in token of sincere affection " to the 
author's life-long friend and relative, Lord Lyttel- 



Book on Church and State 143 

ton. He dwelt upon tlie leading moral cliarac- 
teristics of the Englisli Episcopal CHurcli, their 
intrinsic value and their adaptation to the cir- 
cumstances of the times, and defined these 
characteristics to be the doctrine of the visibility 
of the Church, the apostolic succession in the 
ministry, the authority of the Church in matters 
of faith and the truths symbolized in the 
sacraments. 

In one chapter he strongly attacks Ration- 
alism as a reference of the gospel to the depraved 
standard of the actual human natures and by no 
means to its understanding properly so called, as 
its measure and criterion. He says : " That 
therefore to rely upon the understanding, mis- 
informed as it is by depraved affections, as our 
adequate instructor in matters of religion, is most 
highly irrational." Nevertheless, " the under- 
standing has a great function in religion and is a 
medium to the affections, and may even correct 
their particular impulses." 

In reference to the question of the recon- 
version of England to Catholicism, earnestly 
desired by some, Mr. Gladstone forcibly re- 
marked : " England, which with ill grace and 
ceaseless efforts at remonstrance, endured the 
yoke when Rome was in her zenith, and when 
her powers were but here and there evoked ; will 
the same England, afraid of the truth which she 
has vindicated, or even with the license which 



144 William E. GladsTONB 

has mingled like a weed witH its growtH, recur to 
tliat system in its decrepitude wliicli slie re- 
pudiated in its vigor ? " If the Church of 
England ever lost her power, it would never be 
by submission to Rome, " but by that principTe 
of religious insubordination and self-dependence 
which, if it refuse her tempered rule and succeed 
in its overthrow, will much . more surely refuse 
and much more easily succeed in resisting the 
unequivocally arbitrary impositions of the Roman 
scheme." Here is the key-note of many of Mr. 
Gladstone's utterances in after years against 
the pretentions and aspirations of Rome. The 
defense of the English Church and its principles 
and opposition to the Church of Rome have been 
unchanging features in Mr. Gladstone's religious 
course. But, in the light of these early utter- 
ances, some have criticised severely that legis- 
lative act, carried through by him in later years, 
by which the Disestablishment of the Irish 
Church was effected. How could the author of 
"The State in its Relations with the Church" 
become the destroyer of the fabric of the Irish 
Church ? 

To meet these charges of inconsistency Mr. 
Gladstone issued, in 1868, " A Chapter of Auto- 
biography." The author's motives in putting 
forth this chapter of autobiography were two — 
first, there was " the great and glaring change " 



book: on Church and State 145 

in his course of action witli respect to tfe Estao- 
lished Churcli of Ireland, wHch was not due to 
the eccentricity or perversion of an individual 
mind^ but to the silent changes going on at the 
very basis of modern society. Secondly, there 
was danger that a great cause then in progress 
might suffer in point of credit, if not of energy 
and rapidity, from the real or supposed delin- 
quencies of the author. 

He stated that " The author had upheld the 
doctrine that the Church was to be maintained 
for its truth, and that if the principle was good 
for England it was good for Ireland too. But 
he denied that he had ever propounded the 
maxim simpliciter that we were to maintain the 
establishment. He admitted that his opinion of 
the Church of Ireland was the exact opposite of 
what it had been ; but if the propositions of his 
work were in conflict with an assault upon the 
existence of the Irish Establishment, they were 
even more hostile to the grounds upon which it 
was now sought to maintain it. He did not wish 
to maintain the Church upon the basis usually 
advanced, but for the benefit of the whole people 
of Ireland, -^nd if it could not be maintained as 
the truth it could not be maintained at all." 

Mr. Gladstone contended that the Irish 
Episcopal Church had fallen out of harmony 
with the spirit and use of the time, and must be 
judged by a practical rather than a theoretic test. 



146 William E. Gladstone 

In concluding tlie autHor puts antithetically tlie 
case for and against the maintenance of the 
Church of Ireland : ^' An establishment that does 
its work in much and has the hope and likelihood 
of doing it in more ; that has a broad and living 
way open to it into the hearts of the people ; that 
can command the services of the present by the 
recollections and traditions of the past ; able to 
appeal to the active zeal of the greater portion of 
the people, and to the respect or scruples of living 
work and service, and whose adversaries, if she 
has them, are in the main content to believe 
that there will be a future for them and their 
opinions ; such an establishment should surely be 
maintained. 

^' But an establishment that neither does nor 
has her hope of doing work, except for a few, and 
those few the portion of the community whose 
claims to public aid is the smallest of all ; an 
establishment severed from the mass of the 
people by an impassable gulf and a wall of brass ; 
an establishment whose good offices, could she 
offer them, would be intercepted by a long, un- 
broken chain of painful and shameful recol-- 
lections ; an establishment leaning for support 
upon the extraneous aid of a State, which be- 
comes discredited with the people by the very act 
of leading it ; such an establishment will do well 
for its own sake, and for the sake of its creed, to 
divest itself, as soon as may be, of gauds and 



Book on Church and State 147 

trappings, and to commence a new career, in 
whicli renouncing at once the credit and tlie dis- 
credit of the civil sanction, and shall seek its 
strength from within and put a fearless trust in 
the message that it bears." 

Such, then, were the reasons that led the 
defender of the Irish Church to become its as- 
sailant, ^' That a man should change his opinions 
is no reproach to him ; it is only inferior minds 
that are never open to conviction." 

Mr. Gladstone is a firm Anglican, as we 
have seen, but the following extract from his 
address made at the Liverpool College, in Decem- 
ber, 1872, gives a fine insight as to the breadth 
of his Christian sentiments : 

" Not less forcibly than justly, you hear 
much to the effect that the divisions among 
Christians render it impossible to say what 
Christianity is, and so destroy all certainty as to 
the true religion. But if the divisions among 
Christians are remarkable, not less so is their 
unity in the greatest doctrines that they hold. 
Well-nigh fifteen hundred years have passed 
away since the great controversies concerning the 
Deity and the person of the Redeemer were, after 
a long agony, determined. As before that time, 
in a manner less defined but adequate for their 
day, so, even since that time, amid all chance and 
change, more — aye, many more — than ninety- 
nine in every hundred Christians have, with one 



i4B William E. Gladstone 

voice, confessed tlie Deity and incarnation of onr 
Lord as the cardinal and central truth, of our 
religion. Surely there is some comfort here, 
some sense of brotherhood ; some glory due to 
the past, some hope for the times that are to come." 
Mr. Gladstone as Prime Minister of Eng- 
land, during his several administratipns, has had 
a large Church patronage to dispense, in other 
words, has been called upon, by virtue of his 
office, to fill many vacancies in the Established 
Church, but it has been truly testified that 
^' there has probably never been so laboriously' 
conscientious a distributor of ecclesiastical crown 
patronage as Mr. Gladstone. In his ecclesiasti- 
cal appointments he never took politics into con- 
sideration. A conspicuous instance of this may 
be mentioned. When it was rumored that he 
intended to recommend Dr. Benson, the present 
Archbishop, for the vacant See of Canterbury, a 
political supporter called to remonstrate with him. 
Mr. Gladstone begged to know tlie ground of his 
objection. " The Bishop of Truro is a strong 
Tory," was the answer ; '' but that is not all. , 
He has joined Mr. Raikes's election committee at 
Cambridge; and it was only last week that 
Raikes made a violent personal attack upon 
yourself." ^' Do you know," replied Mr. Glad- 
stone, " that you have just supplied me with a 
strong argument in Dr. Benson's favor ? for, if 



Book on Church and State 149 

lie had been a worldly man or self-seeker lie 
would not have done anything so imprudent." 

Mr. Gladstone sympathized more or less 
with the Nonconformists struggling against the 
application of university tests and other disabili- 
ties from which the Dissenters suffered, but it 
was not until 1876 that he really discovered the 
true religious work of the English Noncon- 
formists. The manner in which the Congrega- 
tionalists, Baptists, Quakers and others rallied to 
the standard raised in the cause of Bulgarian 
nationality effected a great change in his attitude 
towards his Dissenting fellow countrymen. He 
entertained many of the representative Noncon- 
formist ministers at breakfast, and the fidelity 
and devotion of Nonconformists generally to the 
Bulgarian cause left on his mind an impression 
which has only deepened with the lapse of time. 
The extent to which this influences him may be 
gathered from the reply which he made to Dr. 
Dollinger whilst that learned divine was discus- 
sing with him the question of Church and State. 
Dr. Dollinger was expressing his surprise that 
Mr. Gladstone could possibly coquette in any way 
with the party that demanded the severance of 
Church and State in either Wales or Scotland. 
It was to him quite incomprehensible that a 
statesman who held so profoundly the idea of 
the importance of religion could make his own a 
cause whose avowed object was to cut asunder 



150 William E. Gladstone 

tlie Cliurcli from the State. Mr. Gladstone 
listened attentively to Dr. Bollinger's remarks, 
and then, in an absent kind of way, said, " But 
you forget how nobly the Nonconformists sup- 
ported me at the time of the Eastern Question." 
The blank look of amazement on Dr. Dollinger's 
face showed the wide difference between the 
standpoint of the politician and the ecclesiastic. 
But Mr. Gladstone knew upon whom to rely in 
the hour of need, when great moral issues were at 
stake. The Bishops of the House of Lords had 
not always done their duty. Lord Shaftesbury, 
himself a very ardent Churchman, wrote, June 16, 
1855, in reference to the Religious Worship Bill : 
'^ The Bishops have exhibited great ignorance, 
bigotry and opposition to evangelical life and 
action, and have seriously injured their character, 
influence and position." 

Mr. Gladstone never displayed more marked 
respect for the " Nonconformist conscience " than 
when, in deference to their earnest appeal, he 
risked the great split in the Home Rule ranks 
that followed his repudiation of Mr. Parnell. 
Mr. Gladstone never hesitated or made the 
slightest pretense about the matter. If the Non- 
conformists had been as indifferent as the 
Churchmen, his famous letter about the Irish 
leadership would not have been written. " He 
merely acted, as he himself stated, as the regis- 
trar of the moral temperature which made Mn 



Book on church and State 151 

Parnell impossible. He knew the men wHo are 
the Ironsides of his party too well not to under- 
stand that if he had remained silent the English 
Home Rulers would have practically ceased to 
exist. He saw the need, rose ^to the occasion 
and cleared the obstacle which would otherwise 
have been a fatal impediment to the success 
of his course. Mr. Gladstone is a practical 
statesman, and with some instinct divined the 
inevitable." 

Mr. Gladstone's religious belief, as well as 
his opinion of the Bible and the plan of salvation 
revealed in the Gospel, are manifest as expressed 
in the following words from his pen : 

"If asked what is the remedy for the deeper 
sorrows of the human heart — what a man should 
chiefly look to in his progress through life as the 
power that is to sustain him under trials and 
enable him manfully to confront his afflictions— 
I must point him to something which, in a well- 
known hymn is called ^ the old, old story,' told of 
in an old, old book, and taught with an old, old 
teaching, which is the greatest and best gift ever 
given to mankind." 

Another may read the lessons on the Lord's 
day in Hawarden Church and write and speak in 
defense of the Established Church of England, 
but Mr. Gladstone did more — he put his trust 
in his Lord and Saviour, and believed in his 
word. Mr. Gladstone was denominationally a 



152 



William E. Gladstone 



member of the Episcopal Churcli, but religiously 
lie held to views commonly held by all Evangeli- 
cal Christians, from which the temptations of 
wealth at home, of college and of politics never 
turned him. 




Kilmainham Jail, where the Irish M. P.'s were confined in 1883 



CHAPTER V 
Travels and Marriage 

A ^ R. GLADSTONE spent tlae winter 
Jj/i of 1838-9 in Rome. The physi- 
^^ ij ^/ cians had recommended travel in 
the south of Europe for his health 
and particularly for his eyes, the 
sight of which had become impaired by hard 
reading in the preparation of his book. He had 
given up lamps and read entirely by candle-light 
with injurious results. He was joined at Rome 
by his friend, Henry Manning, afterwards Car- 
dinal, and in company they visited Monsignor, 
afterwards Cardinal, Wiseman, at the English 
College, on the feast of St. Thomas of Canter- 
bury. They attended solemn mass in honor of 
that Saint, and the places in the missal were 
found for them by a young student of the college, 
named Grant, who afterwards became Bishop of 
Southwark. 

Besides visiting Italy he explored Sicily, 
and kept a journal of his tour. Sicily is a 
beautiful and fertile island in the Mediterranean 

^53 



154 William E. Gladstone 

Sea, and is the granary of Rome. His recorded 
observations show the keenness of his perceptions 
and the intensity with which he enjoyed the 
beantifnl and wonderful in nature. 

Mount Etna, the greatest volcano of Europe, 
and which rises 10,000 feet above the sea, stirred 
his soul greatly, and he made an ascent of the 
mountain at the beginning of the great eruption 
of 1838. Etna has many points of interest for 
all classes of scientific men, and not least for the 
student of arboriculture. It bears at the height 
of 4000 feet above the level of the sea a wonder- 
ful growth — a very large tree — which is claimed 
by some to be the oldest tree in the world. It is 
a venerable chestnut, and known as ''the father 
of the forest." It is certainly one of the most 
remarkable as well as celebrated of trees. It 
consists not of one vast trunk, but of a cluster of 
smaller decayed trees or portions of trees growing 
in a circle, each with a hollow trunk of great 
antiquity, covered with ferns or ivy, and stretch- 
ing out a few gnarled branches with scanty 
foliage. That it is one tree seems to be evident 
from the growth of the bark only on the outside. 
It is said that excavations about the roots of the 
tree showed these various stems to be united at 
a very small depth below the surface of the 
ground. It still bears rich foliage and much 
small fruit, though the heart of the trunk is 
decayed, and a public road leads through it wide 



Marriage and Travels. 155 

enough for two coaclies to drive abreast. Trav- 
elers have differed in their measurements of this 
stupendous growth. Admiral Smyth, who takes 
the lowest estimate, giving 163 feet, and Brydone 
giving, as the highest, 204 feet. In the middle 
of the cavity a hut is built, for the accommoda- 
tion of those who collect and preserve the 
chestnuts. One of the Queens of Arragon is 
reported to have taken shelter in this tree, 
with her mounted suite of one hundred persons ; 
but, "-we may, perhaps, gather from this that 
mythology is not confined to the lower latitudes.'* 
Further up the mountain is another vener- 
able chestnut, which, with more reason, probably, 
may be described without fear of contradiction 
as the largest chestnut tree in the world. It 
rises from one solid stem to a remarkable height 
before it branches. At an elevation of two feet 
from the earth its circumference was found by 
Brydone to be seventy-six feet. These trees are 
reputed to have flourished for much more than a 
thousand years. Their luxuriant growth is 
attributed in part to the humid atmosphere of the 
Bosco, elevated above the scorching, arid region of 
the coast, and in part to the great richness of the 
soil. The luxuriance of the vegetation on the 
slopes of Etna attracts the attention of every 
traveler ; and Mr. Gladstone remarked upon this 
point: '' It seems as though the finest of all soils 
were produced from the most agonizing throes of 



156 William E. Gladstone 

nature, as the hardiest characters are often reared 
amidst the severest circumstances. The aspect 
of this side of Sicily is infinitely more active and 
the country is cultivated as well as most parts 
of Italy." 

He and his party started on the 30th of 
October, and found the path nearly uniform from 
Catania, but the country bore a volcanic aspect 
at every step. At Nicolosi their rest was dis- 
turbed by the distant booming of the mountain. 
From this point to the Bosco the scenery is 
described as a dreary region, but the tract of the 
wood showed some beautiful places resembling 
an English park, with old oaks and abundant 
fern. " Here we found flocks browsing ; they 
are much exposed to sheep-stealers, who do not 
touch travelers, calculating with justice that men 
do not carry much money to the summit of Etna." 
The party passed the Casa degli Inglesi, which 
registered a temperature of 31°, and then contin- 
ued the ascent on foot for the crater. A mag- 
nificent view of sunrise was here obtained. 

"Just before we reached the lip of the crater 
the guide exultingly pointed out what he declared 
to be ordinarily the greatest sight of the mount- 
ain, namely, the shadow of the cone of Etna, 
drawna with the utmost delicacy by the newly- 
risen sun, but of gigantic extent ; its point at 
this moment rested on the mountains of Palermo, 
probably one hundred miles ofi", and the entire 



Marriage and Travels. 157 

figure was visible, the atmosphere over the 
mountains having become and continuing per- 
fectly and beautifully transparent, although in 
the hundreds of valleys which were beneath us, 
from the east to the west of Sicily, and from the 
mountains of Messina down to Cape Passaro, 
there were still abundant vapors waiting for a 
higher sun to disperse them ; but we enjoyed in 
its perfection this view of the earliest and finest 
work of the greater light of heaven, in the 
passage of his beams over this portion of the 
earth's surface. During the hour we spent on 
the summit, the vision of the shadow was speedily 
contracting, and taught us how rapid is the real 
rise of the sun in the heavens, although its effect 
is diminished to the eye by a kind of fore- 
shortening." 

The writer next describes in vivid and 
powerful language the scene presented to the 
view at the very mouth of the crater. A large 
space, one mile in circumference, which a few 
days before had been one fathomless pit, from 
which issued masses of smoke, was now abso- 
lutely filled up to within a few feet of the brim 
all round. A great mass of lava, a portion of 
the contents of this immense pit, was seen to 
detach itself by degrees from one behind. " It 
opened like an orange, and we saw the red-hot 
fibres stretch in a broader and still broader vein, 
until the mass had fjund a support on the new 



158 William E. Gladstone 

ground it occupied in front ; as we came back on 
our way down this had grown black." A stick 
put to it took fire immediately. Within a few 
yards of this lava bed were found pieces of ice, 
formed on the outside of the stones by Frost, 
^' which here disputes every inch of ground with 
his fierce rival Fire." 

Mr. Gladstone and his fellow-travelers were 
the first spectators of the great volcanic action of 
this year. From the highest peak attainable the 
company gazed upon the splendid prospect to the 
east spread out before them, embracing the 
Messina Mountains and the fine kindred outline 
of the Calabrian coast, described by Virgil in the 
third book of the ^neid. Mr. Gladstone 
graphically describes the eruption which took 
place and of which he was the enraptured witness. 
Lava masses of 1 50 to 200 pounds weight were 
thrown to a distance of probably a mile and a 
half; smaller ones to a distance even more 
remote. The showers were abundant and con- 
tinuous, and the writer was impressed by the 
closeness of the descriptions in Virgil with the 
actual reality of the eruption witnessed by him- 
self. On this point he observes : 

" Now how faithfully has Virgil (^. iii, 571, 
et seq.) comprised these particulars, doubtless 
without exaggeration, in his fine description ! 
First, the thunder-clap, or crack — 

' Horrificis juxta tonat ^tna ruinis.' 



Marriage and Travels. 159 

Secondly, the vibration of the ground to the 
report — 

* Kt, fessum quoties mutet latus, intremere omnem 
Murmure Trinacriam.' 

Thirdly, the sheet of flame — 

' Attolitque globos flarmmarum, et sidera lambit.^ 

Fourthly, the smoke — 

'Kt coelum subtexere fumo.' 

Fifthly, the fire shower — 

* Scopulos avulsaque viscera montis 
Krigit erucatans, liquefactaque saxa sub auras 
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exae tuat imo.' 

Sixthly the column of ash — 

* Atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem 
Turbine fumantem piceo et candente favilla.' 

And this is within the limits of twelve lines. 
Modern poetry has its own merits, but the con- 
veyance of information is not, generally speaking, 
one of them. What would Virgil have thought 
of authors publishing poems with explanatory 
notes (to illustrate is a different matter), as if 
they were so many books of conundrums ? 
Indeed this vice is- of very late years." 

The entire description, of w^hich this is but 
an extract, is very effective and animated, and 
gives with great vividness the first impressions 
of a mind susceptible to the grand and imposing 
aspects of nature. 

"After Etna," says Mr. Gladstone in his 
diary, " the temples are certainly the great charm 
and attraction of Sicily. I do not know whether 



i6o William E. Gladstone 

there is any one among tHem wHicli, taken alone, 
exceeds in beauty that of Neptune, at Paestum ; 
but they have the advantage of number and 
variety, as well as of highly interesting positions. 
At Segesta the temple is enthroned in a perfect 
mountain solitude, and it is like a beautiful tomb 
of its religion, so stately, so entire ; while around, 
but for one solitary house of the keeper, there is 
nothing, absolutely nothing, to disturb the ap- 
parent reign of Silence and of Death. * * * 
The temples enshrine a most pure and salutary 
principle of art, that which connects grandeur of 
effect with simplicity of detail ; and, retaining 
their beauty and their dignity in their decay, 
they represent the great man when fallen, as 
types of that almost highest of human qualities — 
silent yet not sullen, endurance." 

While sojourning at Rome Mr. Gladstone 
met Lord Macaulay. Writing home from Rome 
in the same year. Lord Macaulay says : *^ On 
Christmas Eve I found Gladstone in the throng, 
and I accosted him, as we had met, though we 
had never been introduced to each other. He 
received my advances with very great empresse- 
ment indeed, and we had a good deal of pleasant 
talk." And again he writes : "I enjoyed Italy 
immensely ; far more than I had expected. By- 
the-by, I met Gladstone at Rome, We talked 
and walked together in St. Peter's during the 



Marriage and Travhls. i6i 

best part of an afternoon. He is both a clever 
and an amiable man." 

Among the visitors at Rome the winter that 
Mr. Gladstone spent in the eternal city were the 
widow and daughters of Sir Stephen Richard 
Glynne, of Hawarden Castle, Flintshire, Wales. 
He had already made the acquaintance of these 
ladies, having been a friend of Lady Glynne's 
eldest son at Oxford, and having visited him at 
Hawarden in 1835. He was thrown much into 
their societ}^ while at Rome, and became en- 
gaged to the elder of Lady Glynne's daughters, 
Catharine Glynne. It is strange to relate that 
some time before this when Miss Glynne met her 
future husband at a dinner-party, an English 
minister sitting next to her had thus drawn her 
attention to Mr. Gladstone : " Mark that young 
man ; he will yet be Prime Minister of England." 
Miss Glynne and her sister were known as ^' the 
handsome Miss Glynnes." 

William E. Gladstone and Catharine Glynne 
were married July 25, 1839, at Hawarden Castle. 
At the same time and place Miss Mary Glynne 
was married to George William, fourth Lord 
Lyttleton, with whom Mr. Gladstone was on the 
most intimate terms of friendship until his 
lordship's untoward and lamented death. The 
brother of these ladies was Sir Stephen Glynne, 
the then owner of Hawarden. Mrs. Gladstone 



i62 William E. Gladstone 

was " in lier issue heir " of Sir Stephen Glynne^ 
who was ninth and last baronet of that name. 

The marriage ceremony has been thus 
described by an eye-witness : 

^^ For some time past the little town of 
Hawarden has been in a state of excitement in 
consequence of the anticipated nuptials of the 
two sisters of Sir Stephen Glynne, Bart., M. P., 
who have been engaged for some time past to 
Lord Lyttelton and to Mr. W. Ewart Gladstone. 
Thursday last (July 25th) was fixed upon for 
the ceremony to take place ; but in consequence 
of the Chartists having attacked Lord Lyttelton's 
mansion in Worcestershire, it was feared that the 
marriage would be delayed. All anxieties on this 
subject were put an end to by orders being 
issued to make ready for the ceremony, and the 
Hawarden folks lost no time in making due 
preparations accordingly. The church was ele- 
gantly and profusely decorated with laurels, while 
extremely handsome garlands, composed of the 
finest flowers, were suspended from the venerable 
roof About half-past ten a simultaneous rising 
of the assembled multitude and the burst of 
melody from the organ announced that the fair 
brides had arrived, and all eyes were turned 
towards the door to witness the bridal cortege. 
In a few minutes more the party arrived at the 
communion table and the imposing ceremony 
commenced. At this period the coup d^cetlvf^.s 




Gladstone's Makeiage at Ha warden. 



Travels and Marriage 163. 

extremely interesting. The bridal party exhib- 
ited every elegance of costume ; while the dresses 
of the multitude, lit up by the rays of a brilliant 
sunlight, filled up the picture. The Rev. the 
Hon. G. Neville performed the ceremony. At its 
conclusion the brides visited the rectory, v^hence 
they soon afterwards set out — Lord and Lady 
Lyttelton to their seat in Worcestershire, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone on a visit to Sir Richard 
Brooke, Norton Priory Mansion, in Cheshire. 
The bridal party having returned to the castle, 
the good folks of Hawarden filled up the day with 
rambling over Sir Stephen Glynne's delightful 
park, to which free access was given to all 
comers ; and towards evening a dance on the 
green was got up." 

It is to be remarked that by his marriage 
Mr. Gladstone became allied with the house of 
Grenville, a family of statesmen, which, directly 
or in its ramifications, had already supplied 
England with four Prime Ministers. Baron 
Bunsen, who made his acquaintance that year, 
writes that he " was delighted with the man who 
is some day to govern England if his book is 
not in the way." 

Mrs. Gladstone is widely and deservedly 
known for her many philanthropic enterprises, 
but even better, perhaps, has proved herself to be 
a noble and devoted wife and mother. She has 
cheered by her sympathy her illustrious husband 



i64 William E. Gladstone 

in liis defeats as well as in his trinmplis, in the 
many great undertakings of his political career, 
and been to him all the late Viscountess Beacons- 
field was to Mr. Gladstone's Parliamentary rival. 
As a mother, she nursed and reared all her 
children, and ever kept them in the maternal 
eye, carefully watching over and tending them. 
One of the most interesting buildings at Hawar- 
den is Mrs. Gladstone's orphanage, which stands 
close to the castle. Here desolate orphans are 
well cared for, and find, until they are prepared 
to enter on the conflict and to encounter the cares 
of life, a happy home. 

Mrs. Gladstone, although in many respects 
an ideal wife, was never able to approach her 
husband in the methodical and business-like , 
arrangement of her affairs. Shortly after their 
wedding, the story runs, Mr. Gladstone seriously 
took in hand the tuition of his handsome young 
wife in book-keeping, and Mrs. Gladstone applied 
herself with diligence to the unwelcome task. 
Some time after she came down in triumph to 
her husband to display her domestic accounts 
and her correspondence, all docketed in a fashion 
which she supposed would excite the admiration 
of her husband. Mr. Gladstone cast his eye over 
the results of his wife's labor and exclaimed in 
despair : " You have done them all wrong, from 
beginning to end ! " His wife, however, has 
been so invaluable a helpmeet in other ways that 



Travels and Marriage 



165 



It seems somewhat invidious to recall that little 
incident. She had other work to do, and she 
wisely left the accounts to her husband and his 
private secretaries. 

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone has 
been blessed by eight children, all of whom save 
two still survive. There were four sons, the 
eldest, William Henry, was a member of the 
Legislature, and the second, the Rev. Stephen 
Edward Gladstone, is rector of Hawarden. The 
third son is named Henry Neville and the fourth 
Herbert John Gladstone. The former is engaged 
in commerce and the latter is the popular 
member for Leeds. The eldest daughter, Anne, 
is married to Rev. E. C. Wickham, A. M , head- 
master of Wellington College ; and the second, 
Catharine Jessy Gladstone, died in 1850; the 
third daughter, Mary, is married to Rev. W. 
Drew, and the fourth, Helen Gladstone, is princi- 
pal of Newnham College. As Sir John Glad- 
stone had the pleasure of seeing his son William 
Ewart become a distinguished member of Parlia- 
ment, so Mr. Gladstone in his turn was able to 
witness his eldest son take his seat in the 
British Senate. 

It was a sad bereavement when the Glad- 
stones were called upon to part with their little 
daughter, Catharine Jessy, April 9, 1850, between 
four and five years old. Her illness was long 
and painful, and Mr. Gladstone bore his part in 



i66 William E. Gladstone 

tlie nursing and watching. He was tenderly 
fond of his little children and the sorrow had 
therefore a peculiar bitterness. But Mr. Glad- 
stone has since had another sad experience of 
death entering the family circle. July 4, 1891, 
the eldest son, William Henry Gladstone, died. 
The effect upon the aged father was greatly 
feared, and the world sympathized with the great 
statesman and father in his sad trial, and with 
the afS.icted family. In a letter dated July 9, 
the day after the interment, Mr. Gladstone wrote : 

" We, in our affliction are deeply sensible of 
the mercies of God. He gave us for fifty years a 
most precious son. He has now only hidden 
him for a very brief space from the sight of our 
eyes. It seems a violent transition from such 
thoughts to the arena of political contention, but 
the transition may be softened by the conviction 
we profoundly hold that we, in the first and 
greatest of our present controversies, work for 
the honor, well-being and future peace of our 
opponents not less than for our own." 

When away from the trammels of office, Mr. 
Gladstone taught his elder children Italian. All 
the sons went to Eton and Oxford, and the 
daughters were educated at home by English, 
French and German governesses. A close union 
of affection and sentiment has always been a 
marked characteristic of this model English 
family. Marriage and domestic cares, however, 



i68 Travels and Marriage 

made little difference in Mr. Gladstone's mode 
of life. He was still tlie diligent student, tHe 
constant debater and the copious writer tHat ht 
Had been at Eton, at Oxford and in tbe Albany. 
In the early days of tbeir married life, Mr. 
and Mrs. Gladstone lived in London with Lady 
Glynne, at 13 Carlton House Terrace. Later 
they lived at 6 Carlton Gardens, which was made 
over to them by Sir John Gladstone ; then again 
at 1 3 Carlton House Terrace ; and when Mr. 
Gladstone was in office, at the official residence of 
the Prime Minister, Downing Street. In 1850 
Mr. Gladstone succeeded to his patrimony, and 
in 1856 he bought 11 Carlton House Terrace, 
which was his London house for twenty years ; 
and he subsequently lived for four years at 73. 
Harley Street. During the parliamentary recess 
Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone divided their time 
between Fasque, Sir John Gladstone's seat in 
Kincardineshire, and Hawarden Castle, which 
they shared with Mrs. Gladstone's brother, Sir 
Stephen Glynne, till in his death in 1874, when 
it passed into their sole possession. In 1 854 
Mrs. Gladstone's brother added to the castle a 
new wing, which he especially dedicated to his 
illustrious brother-in-law, and which is fondly 
known as "The Gladstone Wing." And Mr. 
Gladstone, having only one country house, prob- 
ably spent as much time at Hawarden as any 



Travels and Marriage i{ 



9 



other minister finds it possible to devote to 
residence out of London. 

Hawarden, usually pronounced Harden, is 
the name of a large market-town, far removed 
from the centre and seat of trade and empire, in 
Flintshire, North Wales, six miles southwest 
from the singular and ancient city of Chester, of 
which it may be called a suburb, It is not 
pretty, but a clean and tolerably well-built place, 
with some good houses and the usual character- 
istics of a Welsh village. The public road from 
Chester to Hawarden, which passes by the mag- 
nificent seat of the Duke of Westminster, is not, 
except for this, interesting to the stranger. 
There is a pedestrian route along the banks of 
the river Dee, over the lower ferry and across the 
meadows. But for the most part the way lies 
along dreary wastes, unadorned by any of the 
beautiful landscape scenery so common in Wales. 
Broughton Hall, its pleasant church and quiet 
churchyard, belonging to the Hawarden estate, 
are passed on the way. The village lies at the 
foot of the Castle, and outside of the gates of 
Hawarden Park. The parish contains 13,000 
acres, and of these the estate of Mr. Gladstone 
consists of nearly 7000. The road from the 
village for the most part is dreary, but within the 
gates the park is as beautiful as it is extensive. 
Richly wooded, on both sides of its fine drive are 
charming vistas opening amongst the oaks, limes 



lyo 



William E. Gladstone 



and elms. On the lieiglit to tlie left of tlie drive 
is the ancient Hawarden Castle, for there are 




The Park Gate, Hawaeden. 

two — the old and the new — the latter being the 
more modern home of the proprietor. 



Travels and Marriage i^i 

The ancient Castle of Hawarden, situated on 
an eminence commanding an extensive prospect, 
is now in ruins. WHat, hov^ever, was left of tHe 
old Castle at the beginning of the century stands 
to-day a monument of the massive work of the 
early masons. The remnant, which ages of time 
and the Parliamentary wars and the strange zeal 
of its first owner under Cromwell for its destruc- 
tion, allowed to remain, is in a marvelous state 
of preservation, and the masonry in some places 
fifteen feet thick. There is a grandeur in the 
ruin to be enjoyed, as well as a scene of beauty 
from its towers. The old Castle, like the park 
itself, is open to the public without restriction. 
Only two requests are made in the interests of 
good order. One is that visitors entering the 
park kindly keep to the gravel walks, while the 
other is that they do not inscribe their names on 
the stone-work of the ancient ruin, which request 
has been unheeded. 

This ancient Castle was doubtless a strong- 
hold of the Saxons in very early times, for it was 
found in the possession of Edwin of Mercia at 
the Norman Conquest, and was granted by 
William the Conqueror to his nephew, Hugh 
Lupus. In later times Prince Llewelyn was 
Lord of Hawarden, of which he was dispossessed 
by his brother, David. It was only after Wales 
was conquered that Hawarden became an English 
stronghold, held against the Welsh. 



t72 



William E. Gladstone 



Tlie Castle had its vicissitudes, both, as to its 
condition and proprietorship, for many years, 
even generations. Somewhere between 1267 
and 1280 the Castle had been destroyed and 
rebuilt. It was rebuilt in the time of Edward I 




^^>^fm^l 



Old Hawabden Castle. 



or Edward II, and formed one link in the chain 
by which the Edwards held the Welsh to their 
loyalty. Its name appears in the doomsday- 
book, where it is spelled Haordine. It was pre- 
sented by King Edward to the House of Salis- 



Travels and Marriage 173 

bury. I'hen the Earls of Derby came into 
possession, and tbey entertained witbin its walls 
Henry VII in tbe latter part of the fifteenth 
century. During the Parliamentary wars it was 
held at first for the Parliament, and was taken by 
siege in 1643. ^^^ royalists were in possession 
two years later, and at Christmas time, in 1645, 
Parliament ordered that the Castle be dismantled, 
which was efiectively done. The latest proprie- 
tor of those times was James, Earl of Derby. 
He was executed and the estates were sold. 
They were purchased by Sergeant Glynne, Lord 
Chief Justice of England under Cromwell, from 
whom in a long line of descent they were in- 
herited, upon the death of the last baronet, Sir 
Stephen Glynne, in 1874, by the wife of William 
E. Gladstone. Sergeant Glynne's son, Sir Wil- 
liam, the first baronet, when he came into 
possession, was seized with the unaccountable 
notion of further destroying the old Castle, and 
by the end of the seventeenth century very little 
remained beyond what stands to-day. 

Hawarden is supposed to be synonymous 
with the word Burg-Ardden, Ardin, a fortified 
mound or hill. It is usually supposed to be an 
English word, but of Welsh derivation, and is no 
doubt related to dinas, in Welsh the exact 
equivalent to the Saxon burg. The Welsh still 
call it Penarlas, a word the etymology of which 
points to a period when the lowlands of Saltney. 



174 



William E. Gladstone 



were under water, and the Castle looked over a 
lake. The earlier history of the Castle goes 
back to the time when it was held by the ancient 




A Glimpse of the Castle feom the Park. 



Britons, and stood firm against Saxon, Dane, or 
whatever invading foe sought to deprive the 



Travels and Marriage 175 

peopleoftHeir heritage in the soil. On the in. 
vasion of William, as we have seen, it was in the 
possession of Edwin, sovereign of Deira. " We 
find it afterwards," says another account, " in the 
possession of Roger Fitzvalarine, a son of one of 
the adventurers who came over with the Con- 
queror. Then it was held, subordinately, by the 
Monthault, or Montalt, family, the stewards of 
the palatinate of Chester. It is remarkable, as 
we noticed in our story of Hughenden Manor, 
that as the traditions of that ancient place 
touched the memory of Simon de Montfort, the 
great Earl of Leicester, so do they also in the 
story of the old Castle of Hawarden. Here 
Llevt^elyn, the last native prince of Wales, held a 
memorable conference with the Earl. With inthe 
walls of Hawarden was signed the treaty of peace 
between Wales and Cheshire, not long to last ; 
here Llewelyn saw the beautiful daughter of 
De Montfort, whose memory haunted him so 
tenderly and so long. Again we find the Castle in 
the possession of the Montalt family, from whom 
it descended to the Stanleys, the Earl of Derby. 
* * * Here the last native princes of Wales, 
Llewelyn and David, attempted to grasp their 
crumbling sceptre. Here no doubt halted Edward 
I, ^ girt with many a baron bold ; ' here the 
Tudor prince, Henry VII, of Welsh birth, visited 
in the later years of the fifteenth century ; and 
this was the occasion upon which it passed into 



176 William E. Gladstone 

the family wHose representatives had proclaimed 
him monarch on Bosworth field. But when 
James, Earl of Derby, was beheaded, after the 
battle of Worcester, in 1651, the estate was 
purchased under the Sequestration Act by Ser- 
geant Glynne, whose portrait hangs over the 
mantleshelf of the drawing-room ; ^ but,' says Mrs. 
Gladstone, in calling our attention to it, ^ he is an 
ancestor of whom we have no occasion to be and 
are not proud.' " 

This remark of Mrs. Gladstone's may be 
explained by the following from the pen of a 
reputable author : " Sergeant Glynne, who flour- 
ished (literally flourished) during the seventeenth 
century, was a most unscrupulous man in those 
troubled times. He was at first a supporter of 
Charles I, then got ofS.ce and preferment under 
Cromwell, and yet again, like a veritable Vicar 
of Bray, became a Royalist on the return of 
Charles II. The Earl of Derby, who was taken 
prisoner at the battle of Worcester, in 1661, was 
executed, and his estates forfeited. Of these 
estates Sergeant Glynne managed to get posses- 
sion of Hawarden ; and though on the Restora- 
tion all Royalists' forfeited estates were ordered 
to be restored, Glynne managed somehow to 
remain in possession of the property." 

It is very probable that Hawarden Castle 
was no exception to those cruel haunts of feudal 



Travels and Marriage 



177 



tyranny and oppression belonging to the days of 
its power. Many years ago, when the rubbish 
was cleared away beneath the Castle ruin, a 




Waterfall in Hawaeden Pabk. 

flight of Steps was found, at the foot of which 
-was a door, and a draw-bridge, which crossed a 



178 William E. Gladstone 

long, deep chasm, neatly faced with, freestone ; 
then another door leading to several small rooms, 
all, probably, places of confinement ; and those 
hollows, now fringed with timber trees, in those 
days constituted a broad, deep fosse. 

The old Hawarden Castle, a curious ruin cov- 
ered with moss and ivy, like many other ancient 
piles of stone in historic England, is a reminder 
of a past and warlike age, when an Englishman's 
home had to be a castle to protect him and his 
family from his enemies. But times have 
changed for the better, and long immunity from * 
internal foes and invading armies has had its 
peaceful effects upon the lands and the homes of 
men. As the grounds of Hawarden show the 
remarkable cultivation produced by long periods 
of peaceful toil, so the ancient castle has given 
way for the modern dwelling, a peaceful abode 
whose only protecting wall is that with which 
the law surrounds it. 

Modem Hawarden Castle is a castle only in 
name. The new *' Castle " has been the home 
of the Glynns' for generations, and ever since 
the marriage of Mr. Gladstone and Miss Glynn 
has been the dwelling of the Gladstones. Mr. 
Gladstone has greatly improved the Hawarden 
estate and the castle has not been overlooked. 
Among the improvements to the castle may be 
named the additions to the library and the 
Golden Wedding Porch. 



Travels and Marriage 179 

The new Castle was begun in 1752, by Sir 
Jobn Glynne, who " created a stout, honest, 
square, red-brick mansion ; '' which was added to 
and altered in the Gothic style in 1814. The 
Glynnes lived in Oxfordshire till early in the 
eighteenth century, when they built themselves 
a small house, which was on the site of the present 
Castle. The new Hawarden Castle stands in 
front of the massive ruin of the old Castle, 
which has looked down on the surrounding 
country for six centuries. A recent writer 
speaking of the new structure as a sham Castle, 
with its plaster and stucco, and imitation turrets, 
says : " It would not have been surprising if the 
old Castle had, after the manner of Jewish chiv- 
alry, torn its hair of thickly entwined ivy, rent 
its garments of moss and lichen, and fallen down 
prostrate, determined forever, to shut out the 
sight of the modern monstrosity." 

However, the author somewhat relents and 
thus describes the modern edifice : 

" The aspect of the house is very impressive 
and imposing, as it first suddenly seems to start 
upon the view after a long carriage-drive through 
the noble trees, if not immediately near, but 
breaking and brightening the view on either 
hand ; 3^et, within and without, the house seems 
like its mighty master — not pensive but rural ; 
it does not even breathe the spirit of quiet. Its 
rooms look active and power-compelling, and we 



Travels and Marriage i8i 

could not but feel tliat tliey were not indebted to 
any of the sestbetic inventions and elegancies of 
furniture for their charm. Thus we have heard 
of one visitor pathetically exclaiming, ^ Not one 
dado adorns the walls ! ' Hawarden is called a 
Castle, but it has not, either in its exterior or 
interior, the aspect of a Castle. It is a home ; it 
has a noble appearance as it rises on the elevated 
ground, near the old feudal ruin which it has 
superseded, and looks over the grand and forest- 
like park, the grand pieces of broken ground, 
dells and hollows, and charming woodlands." 

The traditional history of Hawarden Church, 
as well as that of the Castle, travels back to a very 
remote antiquity, and is the central point of 
interest to many a tragedy, and some of a very 
grotesque character. For instance, for many 
ages the inhabitants of Hawarden were called 
'^ Harden Jews," and for this designation we have 
the following legendary account. In the year 
946, during the reign of Cynan ap Elisap 
Auarawd, King of Gwynedd North, there was a 
Christian temple at Harden, and a rood-loft, in 
which was placed an image of the Virgin Mary, 
with a very large cross in her hands, which was 
called "holy rood." During a very hot and 
dry summer the inhabitants prayed much and 
ardently for rain, but without any effect. Among 
the rest. Lady Trowst, wife of Sytsyllt, governor 
of Harden Castle, went also to pray, when, during 



i82 William E. Gladstone 

this exercise, tlie holy rood fell upon her head 
and killed her. Such behavior upon the part 
of this wooden Virgin could be tolerated no 
longer. A great tumult ensued in consequence, 
and it was concluded to try the said Virgin for 
murder, and the jury not only found her guilty 
of wilful murder, but of inattention in not 
answering the prayers of innumerable petitioners. 
The sentence was hanging, but Span, of Mancot, 
who was one of the jury, opposed this act saying 
it was best to drown, since it was rain they 
prayed for. This was fiercely opposed by Corbin, 
of the gate, who advised that she should be laid 
on the sands by the river. So, this being done, 
the tide carried the lady, floating gently, like 
another lady, Elaine, upon its soft bosom, and 
placed her near the walls of Cserleon (now 
Chester), where she was found next day, says 
the legend, drowned and dead. Here the inhab- 
itants of Caerleon buried her. Upon this occa- 
sion, it is said, the river, which had until then 
been called the Usk, was changed to Rood Die, 
or Rood Dee. We need not stay here to analyze 
some things belonging to locality and etymology, 
which appear to us somewhat anachronistic and 
contradictory in this ancient and queer legend. 

Hawarden Church is a fairly large structure, 
externally a plain old brick building with a low 
tower and a dwarf spire, standing in the midst of 
a large population of graves. There is preserved 




Gladstone Reading the Lessons at Hawaeden Chuech. 



Travels and Marriage 183 

in the annals of tlie CHurcli a list of the rectors 
of Hawarden as far back as 11 80. 

About forty years ago a fire broke out in the 
Churcli, and when all was over, very little was 
left of the original structure except the walls. It 
was restored with great expedition, and was re- 
opened within the same year. The present 
building is a restoration to the memory of the 
immediate ancestor, from whom the estate is 
derived by the present family. It is the centre of 
hard, earnest work, done for an exceptionally large 
parish. But the Church population is occasion- 
ally recruited from all the ends of the earth. 

It is here that the Gladstone family worship 
in the plain, uncushioned pew, near the lectern 
and opposite the pulpit. When the estates came 
into the hands of the Glynnes the living was 
bestowed upon a member of the family. The 
rector is Rev. Stephen Gladstone, second son of 
the Premier. He is not a great preacher, but he 
is quietly earnest and instructive. Mr, Gladstone 
was up early on Sunday mornings and seldom 
failed to be in his pew at Church. . Crowds filled the 
Church Sunday, morning and evening, week after 
week, many of them strangers, to see the Prime 
Minister of England, and behold him leave his 
pew and, standing at the reading-desk, go through 
his part of the service — that of reading the 
lessons for the day, in this obscure village 
Church. After church Mr. Gladstone went to 



184 William E. Gladstone ^- 

the rectory with his family, with his cloak only 
over his shoulders, when the weather required, and 
as he walked along the path through the church- 
yard would bow to the crowds that stood on 
either side uncovered to greet him as he passed 
by. The two brothers, until recently, lived at 
the rectory, and the whole family seemed to live in 
the most beautiful harmony together. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone attribute much 
of his health to the fact that he will have his 
Sabbath to himself and his family, undisturbed 
by any of the agitations of business, the cares of 
State, or even the recreations of literature and 
scholastic study. This profound public regard 
for the day of rest, whether in London or at 
Hawarden, awakens a feeling of admiration and 
puts us in mind of his great predecessor in 
statesmanship, Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who, when 
he arrived at Theobalds on a Saturday evening, 
would throw off his cloak or chain of office and 
exclaim, ' Lie there and rest, my good lord 
treasurer." 

One of the main points of interest at the home 
of Mr. Gladstone is the library. There is not a 
room in Hawarden Castle in which there is not 
an abundance of books, which are not all col- 
lected in the library, but distributed all over the 
house. Where other people have cabinets for 
curiosities, china, etc., there are here shelves and 
cases full of books. In ante-room and bed-room, 



TRAVELS AND MARRIAGE. 



185 



dressing-room and nursery they are found, not 
by single volumes, but in serried ranks ; well- 




The Rev. H. Dkkw, Waeden of St. Deniol's. 

known and useful books. But it is in tke library 
^liere Mr. Gladstone has collected by years of 



i86 



WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 



careful selection, a most valuable and large array 
of books, from all parts of the world, upon every 
subject. These books are classified and so 




Dorothy's Dovecote 



arranged as to be of immediate use. All those 
on one particular subject are grouped together. 



TRAVELS AND MARRIAGE 187 

Mr. Gladstone was a familiar figure in the 
book stores, and especially where rare, old books 
were to be found, and he seldom failed to return 
home with some book in his pocket. Mrs. Glad- 
stone is said to have gone through his pockets 
often upon his return home, and sent back many 
a volume to the book-seller, that had found its 
way to the pocket of her husband, after a hasty 
glance at its title. He kept himself informed of 
all that was going on in the literary, scientific 
and artistic worlds, receiving each week a parcel 
of the newest books for his private readings. 
Every day he looked over several book-sellers's 
catalogues, and certain subjects were sure of get- 
ting an order. 

Hawarden library gave every evidence of be- 
ing for use, and not show. Mr. Gladstone knew 
what books he had and was familiar with their 
contents. Some books were in frequent use, but 
others were not forgotten. He could put his 
hand on any one he wanted to refer to. At the 
end of a volume read he would construct an 
index of his own by which he could find pas- 
sages to which he wished to refer. 

There are few stories that Mr. Gladstone told 
with greater relish than one concerning Sir 
Antonio Panizzi, who many years ago visited the 
library at Hawarden. Looking round the room 
and at its closely packed shelves, he observed in 
a patronizing tone, '' I see you have got some 



1 88 



WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 



books here." Nettled at this seemingly slight- 
ing allusion to the paucity of his library, Mr. 
Gladstone asked Panizzi how many volumes he 
thought were on the shelves. Panizzi replied : 
^' From five to six thousand." Then a loud and 
exulting laugh rang round the room as Mr. 
Gladstone answered: ''You are wrong by at least 
two thousand, as there are eight thousand vol- 




DiNiNG Room in the Orphanage, Ha warden. 



umes and more before you now." Since then 
the library has grown rapidly. 

The fate of this large library was naturally a 
matter of much consideration to Mr. Gladstone. 
It was particularly rich in classical and theologi- 
cal works, so it occured to its owner to form a 
public library under a trusteeship, for the bene- 
fit of students, under the ca:"e of the Rector of 



TRAVELS AND MARRIAGE 



189 



Hawarden, or some other clergyman. So lie 
caused to be erected at a cost to him of about 
$5,000, a corrugated iron building on. a knoll 
just outside Hawarden Cburch. The name of 
this parish library is ^' The St. DeinioPs Theo- 
logical and General Library of Hawarden." In 




Staircase in the Orphanage, Hawarden. 

1 89 1, Mr. Gladstone had deposited about 20,000 
volumes upon the shelves in this new building, 
with his own hands, which books were carried 
in hand-carts from the castle. Since that time 
thousands have been added to this valuable 
collection. 



1 90 



WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 



It was a happy thought of Mr. Gladstone to 
found a theological library in the immediate 
vicinity of Hawarden ; also to have connected 
with it a hostel where students could be boarded 
and lodged for six dollars a week and thus be 
enabled to use the library in the pursuit of their 
studies. Mr. Gladstone has endowed the insti- 
tution with $150,000. Rev. H. Drew, the son- 
in-law of Mr. Gladstone, is warden and librarian. 




Hawarden Chuech. 



CHAPTER VI 
Enters the Cabinet 

0^ 4^E come now to another memorable 
fjkf period in the life of William E. Glad- 
/^^ stone. This period, beginning with 
1840, has been styled '' a memorable 
decade '^ in the history of Parliament. 
His marriage and the publication of his first 
book were great events in his eventful life, but 
the young and brilliant statesman was soon to 
inter the British Cabinet. He was before long 
to demonstrate that he not only possessed the 
arts of the fluent and vigorous Parliamentary 
debater, but the more solid qualities pertaining 
to the practical statesman and financier. In 
following his course we will be led to observe the 
early stages of his changing opinions on great 
questions of State, and to trace the causes which 
led to his present advanced views as well as to his 
exalted position. The estimation in which he 
was then held may be indicated by the following, 
from one of his contemporaries, Sir Stafford 
NQ^thqote;^ afterwards Lord Iddesleigh, and who 

191; 



1Q3 William E. Gladstone 

subsequently succeeded him as leader of tHe 
House of Commons : " There is but one states- 
man of the present day in whom I feel entire 
confidence, and with whom 1 cordially agree, and 
that statesman is Mr. Gladstone. I look upon 
him as the representative of the party, scarcely 
developed as yet, though secretly forming and 
strengthening, which will stand by all that is 
dear and sacred in my estimation, in the struggle 
which I believe will come ere z^ery long between 
good and evil, order and disorder, the Church and 
the world, and I see a very small band collecting 
round him, and ready to fight manfully under 
his leading." 

In 1840 Mr. Gladstone crossed swords with 
the distinguished historian and Parliamentary 
debater. Lord Macaulay, in debate in the House 
of Commons on the relations of England with 
China. The speech of Mr. Gladstone was re- 
markable for its eloquent expression of anxiety 
that the arms of England should never be 
employed in unrighteous enterprises. Sir James 
Graham moved a vote of censure of the ministry 
for ^' want of foresight and precaution," and 
" especially their neglect to furnish the superin- 
tendent at Canton with powers and instructions 
calculated to provide against the growing evils 
connected with the contraband traffic in opium, 
and adapted to the novel and difficult situation in 
which the superintendent was placed." Mr, 



Enters the Cabinet 193 

Gladstone, on the 8th of April, spoke strongly in 
favor of the motion, and said if it failed to involve 
the ministry in condemnation they would still 
be called upon to show cause for their intention 
of making war upon China. Answering the 
speech of Lord Macaulay of the previous evening, 
Mr. Gladstone said: ^' The right honorable 
gentleman opposite spoke last night in eloquent 
terms of the British flag waving in glory at 
Canton, and of the animating effects produced on 
the minds of our sailors by the knowledge that 
in no country under heaven was it permitted to 
be insulted. But how comes it to pass that the 
sight of that flag always raises the spirit of 
Englishmen ? It is because it has always been 
associated with the cause of justice, with oppo- 
sition to oppression, with respect to national 
rights, with honorable commercial enterprises ; 
but now, under the auspices of the noble lord, 
that flag is hoisted to protect an infamous con- 
traband trafi&c, and if it were never to be hoisted 
except as it is now hoisted on the coast of China, 
we should recoil from its sight with horror, and 
should never again feel our hearts thrill, as they 
now thrill with emotion, when it floats proudly 
and magnificently on the breeze." The ministry 
escaped censure when the vote was taken by a 
bare majority. 

In the summer of 1840 Mr. Gladstone, ac- 
companied by Ivord Lyttleton, went to Eton to 



194 William H. Gladstone 

examine candidates of tlie Newcastle Scholar- 
ship, founded by his political friend, the Duke of 
Newcastle. Mr. Gladstone had the pleasure in 
this examination of awarding the Newcastle medal 
to Henry Fitzmaurice Elallam, the youngest 
brother of his own beloved friend and son of 
the historian Hallam. One of the .scholars he 
examined writes : ^' I have a vivid and delightful 
impression of Mr. Gladstone sitting in what was 
then called the library, on an estrade on which 
the head master habitually sate, above which 
was placed, about 1840, the bust of the Duke 
of Newcastle and the names of the Newcastle 
scholars. . ; . When he gave me a Virgil 
and asked me to translate Georg. ii, 475, seq.^ I 
was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful eye 
turning on me with the question, ^ What is the 
meaning of sacra fero ? ' and his look of approval 
when I said, ^ Carry the sacred vessels in the 
procession.' " 

" I wish you to understand that Mr. Glad- 
stone appeared not to me only, but to others, as 
a gentleman wholly unlike other examiners or 
school people. It was not as 2, politiciari that we 
admired him, but as a refined Churchman, deep 
also in political philosophy (so we conjectured 
from his quoting Burke on the Continual State 
retaining its identity though made up of passing 
individuals), deep also in lofty poetry, as we 
guessed from his giving us, as a theme for 



Enters the Cabinet 



^95 



original Latin verse, ' the poet's eye in a fine 
frenzy,' etc. When he spoke to us in ' Pop ' as 
an honorary member, we were charmed and 
affected emotionally : his voice was low and 
sweet, his manner was that of an elder cousin : 
he seemed to treat us with unaffected respect ; 
and to be treated with respect by a man is the 
greatest delight for a boy. It was the golden 
time of ' retrograding transcendentalism,' as the 
hard-heads called the Anglo-Catholic symphony. 
He seemed to me then an apostle of unworldly 
ardor, bridling his life." 

The Whig administration, which for some 
time had been growing very unpopular, was 
defeated and went out of power in 1841. From 
the very beginning of the session their overthrow 
was imminent. Among the causes which ren- 
dered the ministry obnoxious to the country, and 
led to their downfall, may be named the dis- 
appointment of both their dissenting English 
supporters and Irish allies ; their financial policy 
had proved a complete failure and dissatisfied the 
nation ; and the deficit in the revenue this year 
amounted to no less a sum than two millions and 
a half pounds. Every effort to remedy the 
financial difficulties offered by the ministry to 
the House was rejected, Hence it was felt on 
all sides that the government of the country must 
be committed to stronger hands. Accordingly, in 
May, Sir Robert Peel proposed a resolution in the 



196 William E. Gladstone 

House of Commons to tlie effect that tlie min- 
istry did not possess sufficiently the confidence 
of the House to carry through measures deemed 
essential for the public welfare ; and that their 
continuance in office was, under the circumstances, 
at variance with the Constitution. For five days 
this resolution was discussed, but Mr; Gladstone 
took no part in the debate. The motion of Sir 
Robert Peel passed by a majority vote of one, 
and on the 7th of June Lord John Russell 
announced that the ministry would at once dis- 
solve Parliament and appeal to the country. 
Parliament was prorogued by the Queen in per- 
son June 2 2d, and the country was soon in the 
turmoil of a general election. By the end of 
July it was found that the ministry had been 
defeated and with greater loss than the Tories 
even had expected. The Tories had a great 
majority of the new members returned. The 
Liberal seats gained by the Tories were seventy- 
eight, while the Tory seats gained by Liberals 
were only thirty -eight, thus making a Tory 
majority of eighty. Mr. Gladstone was again 
elected at Newark, and was at the head of the 
poll ; with Lord John Manners, afterwards Duke 
of Rutland, as his colleague. 

The new Parliament met in August, and 
the ministers were defeated, in both Houses, on 
the Address and resigned. Sir Robert Peel was 
called upon by the Queen to form a new ministry. 



Cnters the Cabinet -^97 

and Mr. Gladstone was included by his leader in 
the administration. In appearing on the hust- 
ings at Newark Mr. Gladstone said that there 
were two points upon which the British farmer 
might rely — the first being that adequate pro- 
tection would be given him, and, second, that pro- 
tection would be given him through the means of 
the sliding scale. The duties were to be reduced 
and the system improved, but the principle was to 
be maintained. " There was no English states- 
man who could foresee at this period the results 
of that extraordinary agitation which, in the 
course of the next five years, was destined to 
secure the abrogation of the Corn Laws.'' 

There is a tradition that, having already 
conceived a lively interest in the ecclesiastical 
and agrarian problems of Ireland, Mr. Gladstone 
had set. his affections on the Chief Secretaryship. 
But Sir Robert Peel, a consummate judge of 
administrative capacity, had discerned his young 
friend's financial aptitude, and the member for 
Newark became vice-president of the Board of 
Trade and master of the Mint. 

Although in the midst of engrossing cares 
of office as vice-president of the Board of Trade, 
yet Mr. Gladstone found time to renew his old 
interest in ecclesiastical concerns. In the fall of 
1 84 1 an English Episcopal Bishopric was estab- 
lished at Jerusalem. Mr. Gladstone dined with 
Baron Bunsen on the birthday of the King of 



iQo William E. Gladstone 

Prussia, when, as reported by Lord Shaftesbury, 
he ^' stripped himself of a part of his Puseyite 
garments, spoke like a pious man, rejoiced in the 
bishopric of Jerusalem, and proposed the health 
of Alexander, the new Bishop of that see. This 
is delightful, for he is a good man, a clever man 
and an industrious man." And Baron Bunsen, 
speaking of the same occasion, said, ^' Never was 
heard a more exquisite speech. It flowed like a 
gentle, translucent stream. We drove back to 
town in the clearest starlight ; Gladstone con- 
tinuing with unabated animation to pour forth 
his harmonious thoughts in melodious tone." 
And Mr. Gladstone himself writes later: " Amidst 
public business, quite sufi&cient for a man of my 
compass, I have, during the whole of the week, 
perforce, been carrying on with the Bishop of 
London and with Bunsen a correspondence on, 
and inquisition into, the Jerusalem design, 
until I almost reel and stagger under it." 

And still later he writes : ^' I am ready in- 
dividually to brave misconstruction for the sake 
of union with any Christian men, provided 
the terms of the union be not contrary to sound 
principle ; and perhaps in this respect might go 
further, at least in one of the possible directions, 
than you. But to declare the living constitution 
of a Christian Church to be of secondary moment 
is of course in my view equivalent to a denial of 
^ portion of the faith — and I think you will say 



Enters the Cabinet iqc^ 

it IS a construction whicli can not fairly be put 
upon the design, as far as it exists in fixed rules 
and articles. It is one thing to attribute this in 
the way of unfavorable surmise, or as an appre- 
hension of ultimate developments — it is another 
to publish it to the world as a character ostenta- 
tiously assumed." 

We have evidence also that at this time he 
was not permitted to forget that he was an 
author, for he thus writes, April 6, 1842, to his 
publisher : " Amidst the pressure of more urgent 
affairs, I have held no consultation with you 
regarding my books and the sale or no sale of 
them. As to the third edition of the ^ State in 
its Relations,' I should think that the remaining 
copies had better be got rid of in whatever sum- 
mary or ignominious mode you may deem best. 
They must be dead beyond recall. As to the 
others, I do not know whether the season of the 
year has at all revived the demand ; and would 
suggest to you whether it would be well to adver- 
tise them a little. I do not think they find their 
way much into the second-hand shops. With 
regard to the fourth edition, I do not know 
whether it would be well to procure any review 
or notice of it, and I am not a fair judge of its 
merits, even in comparison with the original form 
of the work ; but my idea is that it is less defect- 
ive, both in the theoretical and in the historical 
development, and ought to be worth the notice 



200 William E. Gladstone 

of those who deemed tlie earlier editions worth 
their notice and purchase ; that it would really 
put a reader in possession of the view it was 
intended to convey, which I fear is more than can 
with any truth be said of its predecessors. I am 
not, however, in any state of anxiety or im- 
patience ; and I am chiefly moved to refer these 
suggestions to your judgment from perceiving 
that the fourth edition is as yet far from 
having cleared itself." 

It was from this time that a marked change 
was observable in the subjects of Mr. Gladstone's 
Parliamentary addresses. " Instead of speaking 
on the corporate conscience of the State and the 
endowments of the Church, the importance of 
Christian education and the theological unfitness 
of the Jews to sit in Parliament, he was solving 
business-like problems about foreign tariffs and 
the exportation of machinery ; waxing eloquent 
over the regulation of railways and a graduated 
tax on corn ; subtle on the momentary merits of 
half-farthings and great in the mysterious lore of 
quassia and cocculus indicus." 

In the short session of Parliament, in 1 84 1 , 
that which followed the accession of Sir Robert 
Peel to the office of Prime Minister, he was ques- 
tioned by his opponents as to his future policy. 
The Premier declined to state the nature of the 
measures he intended to present, or which he con- 
templated making, in the intervening months of 



Enters the Cabinet 201 

the recess of Parliament so near at hand. He 
wanted time for the arrangement of his plans and 
the construction of his political programme. An 
effort was made to embarrass the administration 
by refusing to vote the necessary supplies, until 
inquiry should be made into the existing distress, 
but it was defeated. Three weeks later Parlia- 
ment was dissolved by Royal commission. In 
the following sitting of Parliament several meas- 
ures of high practical character were presented. 

Sir Robert Peel acceded to of&ce in very 
critical times. The condition of the country was 
truly lamentable. Distress and discontent were 
widespread and the difiiculties of the govern- 
ment were greatly enhanced by popular tumults. 
The Free Trade agitation was already making 
great headway in the land, and when the Premier 
brought forward his new sliding scale of duties 
in the House of Commons it was denounced by 
Mr. Cobden as an insult to a suffering people. 
The Premier said that he considered the present 
not an unfavorable time for discussing the corn 
laws ; that there was no great stock on hand of 
foreign growth to alarm the farmers ; that the 
recess had been marked by universal calin ; that 
there was no popular violence to interrupt legis- 
lation ; and that there was a disposition to view 
any proposal for the adjustment of the question 
with calmness and moderation, 



202 William E. Gladstone 

The Premier's view of the situation did not 
seem to be wholly in accord with the well-known 
facts, for the Queen even, on her appearance at 
the London theatres, had been hooted, and the 
Prime Minister himself was burnt in eSigy 
during a riot at Northampton ; great excitement 
prevailed throughout the country, and Lord John 
Russell moved as an amendment "That this 
House, considering the evils which have been 
caused by the present corn laws and especially by 
the fluctuation of the graduated or sliding scale, 
is not prepared to adopt the measure of her 
Majesty's government, which is founded on the 
same principles and is likely to be attended by 
similar results." 

It was incumbent upon Mr. Gladstone to 
lead the opposition to this motion. He showed 
that the proposed plan was not founded on the 
same principle of the existing one, except that 
both involved a sliding scale ; that the present 
distress was caused by fluctuation of the seasons 
and not by the laws ; that high prices of food 
were chargeable to successive failures of the crops ; 
that these unavoidable fluctuations were not ag- 
gravated by the corn laws ; that Sir Robert Peel's 
plan of working was far superior to that of Lord 
j ohn Russell ; that the drains upon the currency, 
caused by bad harvests, were not to be prevented 
by a fixed duty ; that a uniform protection could 
not be given to corn, as to other articles, because 



Enters the Cabinet 203 

at tigli prices of corn no duty could be main- 
tained, and that, therefore, at low prices, it was 
but just to give a duty which would be an 
effectual protection. The debate which followed 
^as characterized by vigorous speeches from 
Mr. Roebuck and Lord Palmerston. Lord John 
Russell's amendment was lost by a large ma- 
jority. A motion presented by Mr. Villiers, the 
Free Trade advocate, for the immediate repeal of 
the corn laws was also lost by a majority of 
over three hundred. 

On the nth of March Sir Robert Peel 
introduced his budget. The budget for 1842 
was produced under depressing circumstances. 
There was a deficit of /2, 750,000, or about 
$15,000,000, and taxation upon articles of con- 
sumption had been pushed to its utmost limit. 
Peel was a great financier, but the fiscal diffi- 
culties by which he was now surrounded were 
enough to appall the most ingenious of financial 

ministers. 

Mr. Gladstone rendered the Premier inval- 
uable service in the preparation both of his 
budget and of his tariff scheme. The merit of 
the budget was its taxation of wealth and the 
relief of the manufacturing industry. The 
second branch of the financial plan, the revised 
tariff— a customs duties scheme— was very im- 
portant, and it'was understood to be mainly the 
work of Mr. Gladstone, Out of nearly i?oo 



204 William. E. Gladstone 

duty -paying articles, a total abolition, or a con- 
siderable reduction, was made in no fewer than 
750. This was certainly a great step towards 
the freedom of manufacturers. Sir Robert Peel's 
boast that he had endeavored to relieve manufac- 
turing industries was more than justified by 
this great and comprehensive measure. The 
very best means for relieving the manufacturing 
industries had been devised. 

But while this great relief to industry was 
welcomed the Opposition did not relax their 
efforts for the abolition of the corn laws, which 
were continued into the session of 1843. Sir 
Robert Peel acknowledged, amidst loud cheers 
from the Opposition, that all were agreed in the 
general rule that we should purchase in the 
cheapest market and sell in the dearest ; but he 
added, " If I propose a greater change in the 
corn laws than that which I submit to the con- 
sideration of the House I should only aggravate 
the distress of the country, and only increase the 
alarm which prevails among important interests." 
Mr. Hume hailed with joy the appearance of the 
Premier and his colleagues as converts to the 
principles of Free Trade ; Mr. Gladstone replied, 
that, whoever were the authors of the principles 
on which the government measures rested, he 
must protest against the statement that, the 
ministry came forward as converts to principles 
which they had formerly opposed. 



Enters the Cabinet 20$ 

During the progress of the debate of 1842, 
on the revised Tariff Bill, Mr. Gladstone's labors 
were very great. He was called upon to explain 
or defend the details of the scheme, and had 
something to say about every article of consump- 
tion included in, or excluded from, the list. He 
spoke one hundred and twenty- nine times, chiefly 
on themes connected with the new fiscal legisla- 
ture. He demonstrated his capacity for grasping 
all the most complicated details of finance, and 
also the power of comprehending the scope and 
necessities of the commercial interests of the 
country. No measure with which his name has 
since been connected has done him more credit. 
He spoke incessantly, and amazed the House by 
his mastery of details, his intimate acquaintance 
with the commercial needs of the country, and 
his inexhaustible power of exposition. On 
March 14th Greville wrote, "Gladstone has 
already displayed a capacity which makes his 
admission into the Cabinet indispensable." A 
commercial minister had appeared on the scene, 
and the shade of Hoskisson had revived. 

Though engrossed in schemes of practical 
legislation, and in all the excitements and 
interests of of&ce, he could, as he has ever done 
during his long career, turn aside for the dis- 
course on social and educational questions with 
much earnestness and eloquence, as if they, and 
only they, possessed his mind. In January, 1843, 



2o6 William E. Gladstone 

He spoke at the opening of the Collegiate Insti- 
tute of Liverpool, and delivered a powerful plea 
for the better education of the middle classes, 
which was one of the most forcible speeches 
he ever delivered. He said : 

" We believe that if you could erect a system 
which should present to mankind all ^branches of 
knowledge save the one that is essential, you 
would only be building up a Tower of Babel, 
which, when you had completed it, would be the 
more signal in its fall, and which would bury 
those who had raised it in its ruins. We believe 
that if you can take a human being in his youth, 
and if you can make him an accomplished man 
in natural philosophy, in mathematics, or in the 
knowledge necessary for the profession of a mer- 
chant, a lawyer, or a physician ; that if in any or 
all of these endowments you could form his mind 
— yes, if you could endow him with the science 
and power of a Newton, and so send him forth—- 
and if you had concealed from him, or, rather, 
had not given him a knowledge and love of the 
Christian faith — he would go forth into the 
world, able indeed with reference to those purposes 
of science, successful with the accumulation of 
wealth for the multiplication of more, but * poor, 
and miserable, and blind, and naked ' with refer- 
ence to everything that constitutes the true and 
sovereign purposes of our existence — nay, worse, 
worse — with respect to the sovereign purpose — 



Enters the Cabinet 207 

than if lie liad still remained in the ignorance 
which we all commiserate, and which it is the 
object of this institution to assist in removing,'^ 

It was admitted on all hands that great 
fiscal reforms had been conceived and executed ; 
and speaking of the session of 1842, a writer, not 
favorable to the Tories, wrote : " The nation saw 
and felt that its business was understood and 
accomplished, and the House of Commons was 
no longer like a sleeper under a nightmare. 
The long session was a busy one. The Queen 
wore a cheerful air when she thanked Parliament 
for their effectual labors. The Opposition was 
such as could no longer impede the operations 
of the next session. The condition of the 
country was fearful enough, but something was 
done for its future improvement, and the way was 
now shown to be open for further beneficent 
legislation." 

The corn law reformers renewed their efforts, 
led by Lord Ho wick, as soon as the parliamentary 
session of 1843 opened. An inquiry by the 
whole House was demanded into the causes of 
the long continued manufacturing depression 
referred to in the Queen's speech. Mr. Glad- 
stone replied that while the Opposition proposed 
to repeal the corn laws, they offered no measure 
of relief in their place. The corn laws were at 
the root of the distress in the country, but the 
difficulty was to unite the ranks of the Oppo- 



2o8 William E. Gladstone 

sition in opinion as to what onglit to follow tlie 
repeal of the corn laws. The question between 
tlie government and the Opposition was not 
really so great as the latter wished to make out. 
It was simply as to the amount of relaxation 
the country could bear in the duties. It was 
the intention of the First Lord of th-e Treasury 
to attain his object ^' by increasing the employ- 
ment of the people, by cheapening the prices 
of the articles of consumption, as also the 
articles of industry, by encouraging the means 
of exchange with foreign nations, and thereby 
encouraging in return an extension of the 
export trade ; but besides all this, if he under- 
stood the measure of the government last year, 
it was proposed that the relaxation should be 
practically so limited as to cause no violent shock 
to existing interests, such as would have the 
tendency of displacing that labor which should be 
employed, and which, if displaced, would be 
unable to find another field." The measure of 
the previous year had nothing but a beneficial 
effect, but the repeal of the corn laws would dis- 
place a vast mass of labor. Lord Howick's 
motion was defeated and so were others offered 
by Mr. Villiers and Lord John Russell, by dimin- 
ishing majorities, and Mr. Gladstone protested 
against the constant renewal of uneasiness in the 
country by successive motions of this kind in 
Parliament. 



Enters the Cabinet 269 

The year 1843 was one destined to witness 
a great advance in Mr. Gladstone's progress 
towards the front rank among statesmen. June 
loth, Lord Ripon, who was President of the 
Board of Trade, left this place for the Board 
of Control, and Mr. Gladstone was appointed to 
the position, and thus became a member of the 
Cabinet at the age of thirty-three. Mr. Glad- 
stone now became in name what he had been 
already in fact — the President of the Board of 
Trade. He states that " the very first opinion 
which he was ever called upon to give in 
Cabinet" was an opinion in favor of withdrawing 
the bill providing education for children in 
factories ; to which vehement opposition was 
offered by the Dissenters, on the ground that it 
was too favorable to the Established Church. It 
seemed that his position was assured and yet in 
October he wrote to a friend: "Uneasy, in my 
opinion, must be the position of every member of 
Parliament who thinks independently in these 
times, or in any that are likely to succeed 
them ; and in proportion as a man's course of 
thought deviates from the ordinary lines his 
seat must less and less resemble a bed of 
roses." Mr. Gladstone possibly felt when he 
penned these lines that the time was at hand 
when his convictions would force him to take 
a position that would array against him some of 
his moct ardent friends. 



210 William E. Gladstone 

During the session of 1844 Mr. Gladstone 
addressed the House on a variety of subjects, 
including railways, the law of partnership, the 
agricultural interest, the abolition of the corn 
laws, the Dissenters' Chapel Bill and the sugar 
duties. One very valuable bill he had carried 
was a measure for the abolition of restrictions 
on the exportation of machinery. Another was 
the railway bill, to improve the railway system, 
by which the Board of Trade had conditional 
power to purchase railways which had not 
adopted a revised scale of tolls. The bill also 
compulsorily provided for at least one third-class 
train per week-day upon every line of railway, to 
charge but one penny a mile, regulated the speed 
of traveling, compelled such trains to stop at 
every station,, and arranged for the carrying of 
children under three years of age for nothing 
and those under twelve at reduced fares. This 
measure, conceived so distinctly in the interests 
of the poorer classes, met with considerable 
opposition at first from the various railway com- 
panies, but it was ultimately passed into law. 
These were measures passed in the spirit of 
reform, though by a Conservative government. 

There was another matter legislated upon 
which shows how Mr. Gladstone's mind was 
undergoing changes in the direction of religious 
toleration. Lady Hewley had originally founded 
and given to Calvinistic Independents certain 



Enters the Cabinet 2n 

cHarities wliicli had gradually passed to Uni- 
tarians, wlio were ousted from their benefits. A 
bill was proposed to vest property left to Dis- 
senting bodies in the hands of that religious body 
with whom it had remained for the preceding 
twenty years. The measure was passed, but 
when it was discussed in the House of Commons 
Mr. Gladstone said that it was a bill which it was 
incumbent upon the House to endorse ; that 
there was no contrariety between his principles of 
religious belief and those on which legislation in 
this case ought to proceed ; that there was a 
great question of justice, viz., whether those who 
were called Presbyterian Dissenters, and who 
were a century and a half ago of Trinitarian 
opinions, ought not to be protected at the present 
moment in possession of the chapels which they 
held, with the appurtenances of those chapels ? 
On the question of substantial justice he pro- 
nounced the strongest affirmative opinion. "After 
this speech there were those who thought, and 
expressed their hope and belief in words, that the 
' champion of Free Trade ' would ere long become 
the advocate of the most unrestricted liberty in 
matters of religion. Their hope, if sanguine as 
to its immediate fulfillment, was far from 
groundless." 

However, in December of the same year 
Mr. Gladstone wrote to his friend Archdeacon, 
afterwards Bishop Wilberforce, about the pros- 



2i2 William E. GLADSTONfi 

pects of tlie Churcli of England : "I rejoice to 
see that your views on the whole are hopeful. 
For my part I heartily go along with you. The 
fabric consolidates itself more and more, even 
while the earthquake rocks it ; for, with a 
thousand drawbacks and deductions, love grows 
larger, zeal warmer, truth firmer among us. It 
makes the mind sad to speculate upon the 
question how much better all might have been ; 
but our mourning should be turned into joy and 
thankfulness when we think also how much 
worse it was.^^ 

The next event in the life of Mr. Gladstone 
is marked by a momentous change in his 
political position. Scarcely had Parliament met 
in January, 1845, when i^ was announced to the 
astonishment of everyone that Mr. Gladstone 
had resigned his place as President of the Board 
of Trade in the Cabinet. He set a good deal of 
speculation at rest by the announcement made 
in his speech on the address of the Queen, that 
his resignation was due solely to the government 
intentions with regard to Maynooth College. 
Before, however, he had resigned, Mr. Gladstone 
had completed a second and revised tariff, carry- 
ing further the principles of the revision of 1842. 

In the session of 1844 Sir Robert Peel, 
in response to the requests of Irish members, 
had promised that the Government would 
take up the question of academical education 



Enters the Cabinet 213 

m Ireland, with the view of bringing it more 
nearly to the standard of England and Scotland, 
increasing its amount and improving its quality. 
In fulfillment of this pledge the government, at 
the beginning of the session of 1845, proposed 
to establish non-sectarian colleges in Ireland, 
and to increase the appropriation to Maynooth. 
The College of Maynooth, which was established 
for the education of Roman Catholic priests and 
laymen, had fallen into poverty and decay. In 
order to gratify the Irish, the government offered 
to increase the grant already made from $45,000 
to $150,000 a year. This appropriation was 
not to be subject to any annual vote, and 
the affairs of the College were to be executed by 
the Board of Works. These proposals placed 
Mr. Gladstone in a position of great difSculty. 
He must either support Sir Robert Peel's meas- 
ure, or retire from the Cabinet into isolation, if 
not subject to the imputation of eccentricity. He 
took council with his friends. Archdeacon Man- 
ning and Mr. Hope, who advised him to remain, 
and with Lord Stanley who warned him that his 
resignation must be followed by resistance of the 
proposals of the government, which would involve 
him in a storm of religious agitation. But Mr. 
Gladstone persisted in his intention, in what 
seemed like giving up his brilliant prospects, 
but said it would not necessarily be followed by 
resistance to the proposal about Maynooth, 



214 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone said that tHe proposed in- 
crease in the Maynooth endowment and the 
establishment of non-sectarian colleges were 
at variance with views he had written and uttered 
upon the relations of the Church and State. ^* I 
am sensible how fallible my judgment is," said 
Mr. Gladstone, " and how easily I might have 
erred ; but still it has been my conviction that 
although I was not to fetter my judgment as a 
member of Parliament by a reference to abstract 
theories, yet, on the other hand, it was absolutely 
due to the public and due to myself that I should, 
so far as in me lay, place myself in a position to 
form an opinion upon a matter of so great im- 
portance, that should not only be actually free 
from all bias or leaning with respect to any 
consideration whatsoever, but an opinion that 
should be unsuspected. On that account I have 
taken a course most painful to myself in respect 
to personal feelings, and have separated myself 
from men with whom and under whom I have 
long acted in public life, and of whom I am 
bound to say, although I have now no longer the 
honor of serving my most gracious Sovereign, 
that I continue to regard them with unaltered 
sentiments both of public regard and private 
attachment." 

Then again he said : " My whole purposie 
was to place myself in a position in which I 
should be free to consider any course without 



Enters the Cabinet 215 

being liable to any just suspicion on the ground 
of personal interest. It is not profane if I now 
say, ' ivith a great price obtained I this freedom? 
The political association in which I stood was to 
me at the time the alpha and omega of public life. 
The government Qif Sir Robert Peel was believed 
to be of immovable strength. My place, as 
President of the Board of Trade, was at the very 
kernel of its most interesting operations ; for it 
was in progress from year to year, with contin- 
ually waxing courage, towards the emancipation 
of industry, and therein towards the accomplish- 
ment of another great and blessed work of 
public justice. Giving up what I highly prized, 

aware that 

male sarta 

Gratia nequicquam coit, et rescinditur, 

I felt myself open to the charge of being opinion- 
ated and wanting in deference to really great 
authorities, and I could not but know that I 
should inevitably be regarded as fastidious and 
fanciful, fitter for a dreamer, or possibly a school- 
man, than for the active purposes of public life 
in a busy and moving age." 

There were some of his party angry and 
others who thought that there was something 
almost Quixotic in Mr. Gladstone's honor- 
able resignation, because so soon as he felt 
himself free he gave his support to the May- 
nooth Bill and also to the scheme for th^ 



2i6 William E. Gladstone 

extension of academical education in Ireland, 
which latter was described by Sir R. Inglis as a 
^' gigantic scheme of godless education." In 
Greville's " Memoirs " we find : " Gladstone's 
explanation is ludicrous. Everybody said that 
he had only succeeded in showing that his 
resignation was unnecessary. He was criticised 
as the possessor of a kind of supernatural virtue 
that could scarcely be popular with the slaves of 
party, and he was considered whimsical, fantastic, 
impracticable, a man whose ' conscience was so 
tender that he could not go straight,' a visionary 
not to be relied on — in fact, a character and 
intellect useless to the political manager." '' I 
am greatly alawned at Gladstone's resignation. 
I fear it foretells measures opposed to the Church 
truth," wrote Wilberforce ; and Peel told Glad- 
stone beforehand that his reasons for his resigna- 
tion would be considered insufficient. But Mr. 
Gladstone's resignation, when understood, elicited 
the liveliest expressions of regret from friend and 
foe, as well as the most flattering testimonies as 
to his ability and character. His chief. Sir 
Robert Peel, and Lord John Russell, the leader 
of the Opposition, were alike complimentary in 
their remarks. 

Dr. Russell, the biographer of Mr. Gladstone, 
^ys : '^ Mr. Gladstone's retirement, by impairing 
his reputation for common sense, threatened 
serious and lasting injury to his political career, 



Enters the Cabinet 219 

But the whirligig of time brought its revenges 
even more swiftly than usual. A conjunction of 
events arose in which he was destined to repair 
the mischief which the speculative side had 
wrought ; but for the moment the speculative 
side was uppermost." 

Mr. Gladstone was fast leaving his Toryism 
behind. To show how far his views had changed 
in the course of seven years, it may be said that 
in his speech on these measures he observed how 
that exclusive support to the Established Church 
was a doctrine that was being more and more 
abandoned. Mr. Burke considered it contrary to 
wise policy to give exclusive privileges to a 
negative creed like that of Protestantism. They 
could not prove their religious scruples for deny- 
ing this grant to Roman Catholics, because they 
gave their votes of money to almost every Dis- 
senting seat. He hoped the concession now 
made — which was a great and liberal gift, because 
unrestricted and given in a spirit of confidence — 
would not lead to the renewal of agitation in 
Ireland by Mr. O' Council . It might be well for 
him to reflect that agitation was a two-edged 
sword. Being conformable to justice and not 
contrary to principle, he hoped the measure 
proposed would pass into a law. 

W. T. Stead, in a recent article, said, in 
relation to Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the 
Cabinet, that '^ It is ridiculous to pretend, with 



220 William E, Gladstonf 

Mr. Gladstone's career before us, that his course 
has been swayed by calculating self-interest. 
He has been the very madman of politics from 
the point of view of Mr. Worldly Wiseman. 
^ No man/ said he, the other day, ^ has ever com- 
mitted suicide so often as I,' and that witness is 
true. The first and perhaps the most^ typical of 
all his many suicides was his resignation of his 
seat in Sir Robert Peel's Cabinet, not because he 
disapproved of the Maynooth Grant, but because, 
as he had at one time written against it, he was 
determined that his advocacy of it should be 
purged of the last taint of self-interest. As Mr. 
George Russell rightly remarks, ^ This was an 
act of Parliamentary Quixotism too eccentric to 
be intelligible. It argued a fastidious sensitive- 
ness of conscience, and a nice sense of political 
propriety so opposed to the sordid selfishness and 
unblushing tergiversation of the ordinary place- 
hunter as to be almost offensive.' But as Mr. 
Gladstone was then, so he has been all his life — 
the very Quixote of conscience. Judged by 
every standard of human probability, he has 
ruined himself over and over and over again. 
He is always ruining himself, and always rising, 
like the Phoenix, in renewed youth from the ashes 
of his funeral pyre. As was said in homely 
phrase som e years ago, he ' always keeps bobbing 
up ao^ain.' What is the secret of this wonderful 



Enters the Cabinet 221 

capacity of revival? How is it tliat Mr. Glad- 
stone seems to find even his blunders help him, 
and the affirmation of principles that seem to be 
destructive to all chance of the success of his 
policy absolutely helps him to its realization ? 

^' From a merely human standpoint it is 
inexplicable. But 

* If right or wrong in this God's world of ours 
Be leagued with higher powers,' 

then the mystery is not so insolvable. He be- 
lieved in the higher powers. He never shrank 
from putting his faith to the test ; and on the 
whole, who can deny that for his country and for 
himself he has reason to rejoice in the verification 
of his working hypothesis ? 

" ' We walk by faith and not by sight,' he 
said once ; ^ and by no one so much as by those 
who are in politics is this necessary.' It is the 
evidence of things not seen, the eternal principles, 
the great invisible moral sanctions that men are 
wont to call the laws of God, which alone supply 
a safe guide through this mortal wilderness. 

* Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here ! 

See one straightforward conscience put in pawn 
To win a world ; see the obedient sphere 

By bravery's simple gravitation drawn ! 
Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old, 

And by the Present's lips repeated still ? 
In our own single manhood to be bold, 

Fortressed in conscience and impregnable.' 



222 William e. Gladstone 

'' Mr. Gladstone has never hesitated to 
counter at sharp right angles the passion and 
the fury of the day. Those who represent him 
as ever strong upon the strong side, wilfully shut 
their eyes to half his history. He challenged 
Lord Palmerston over the Don Pacifico question, 
and was believed to have wrecked himself almost 
as completely as when in 1876 he countered even 
more resolutely the fantastic Jingoism of Lord 
Beaconsfield. It is easy for those who come after 
and enter into the spoils gained by sacrifices of 
which they themselves were incapable to describe 
the Bulgarian agitation as an astute party 
move. The party did not think so. Its leaders 
did not think so. Some of those who now halloo 
loud enough behind Mr. Gladstone were then 
bitter enough in their complaint that he had 
wrecked his party. One at least, who was con- 
strained to say the other thing in public, made 
up for it by bitter and contemptuous cavilings in 
private. Now it is easy to see that Lord Beacons- 
field was mistaken and that Mr. Gladstone held 
the winning card all along. But no one knew it 
at the time when the card had to be played, 
certainly not Mr. Gladstone himself. He simply 
saw his duty a dead sure thing, and, like 
Jim Bludsoe on the burning boat, ^ He went for it 
there and then.' It turned up trumps, but no 
one knew how heavy were the odds against it 



Enters the Cabinet 223 

save those who went through the stress and the 
strain of that testing and trying time by his side." 

In the summer of 1845 ^^- Gladstone pro- 
posed to his intimate friend, Mr. J. R. Hope, that 
they should spend the month of September in 
a working tour in Ireland, giving evidence of his 
characteristic desire always to come in personal 
contact with any question that he had to discuss. 
He suggests '' their eschewing all grandeur, and 
taking little account even of scenery, compared 
with the purpose of looking, from close quarters, 
at the institutions for religion and education of 
the country, and at the character of the people. 
It seems ridiculous to talk of supplying the 
defects of second-hand information by so short a 
trip ; but although a longer time would be much 
better, yet even a very contracted one does much 
when it is added to an habitual, though indirect, 
knowledge." The projected trip, however, had to 
be abandoned. 

Towards the close of the year 1845 -'^^• 
Gladstone issued a pamphlet entitled ^' Remarks 
upon recent Commercial Legislation," in which he 
not only discussed the salutary effects of the late 
commercial policy, but used arguments clearly 
showing that he was advancing to the position 
of a free-trader. His general conclusion was 
that English statesmen should use every effort 
to disburden of all charges, so far as the law was 
concerned, the materials of industry, and thus 



224 William E. Gladstone 

enable tlie workman to approach his work at 
home on better terms, as the terms in which he 
entered foreign markets were altered for the 
worse against him. 

While Mr. Gladstone was so willing to deal 
generously more than ever before with the Irish 
Roman Catholics, his confidence in. the Estab- 
lished Episcopal Church of Ireland was growing 
less, ^' I am sorry," he wrote to Bishop Wilber- 
force, " to express my apprehension that the 
Irish Church is not in a large sense efficient ; 
the working results of the last ten years have 
disappointed me. I may be answered, Have 
faith in the ordinance of God ; but then I must 
see the seal and signature, and these, how can I 
separate from ecclesiastical descent ? The title, 
in short, is questioned, and vehemently, not 
only by the Radicalism of the day, but by the 
Roman Bishops, who claim to hold succession 
of St. Patrick, and this claim has been alive all 
along from the Reformation, so that lapse of 
years does nothing against it." 

The name of Dr. Dollinger, the distinguished 
reformed Roman Catholic, has been mentioned 
already in connection with that of Mr. Gladstone. 
In the fall of 1 845 Mr. Gladstone went to Munich 
and paid his first visit to Dr. Dollinger. For a 
week he remained in daily intercourse with this 
eminent divine, and the foundation was laid of a 
friendship which was sustained hy repeated visits 



Enters the Cabinet 



225 



and correspondence, and whicli lasted until the 
doctor's death in 1890. 

In the winter of 1845 ^^' Gladstone met 
with a painful accident that resulted in a perma- 
nent injury to his hand. He was by no means 
what is termed a sportsman, yet he was somewhat 
fond of shooting. His gun was prematurely dis- 
charged while he was loading it, and shattered 
the first finger of his left hand, so that amputa- 
tion was necessary. 




Loyal Ulster 



CHAPTER VII 
Member for Oxford 

// A y R. GLADSTONE'S career," says his 
Jl/L biographer, G. W. E. Russell, 

^^ \l ^/ ^' naturally divides itself into three 
parts. The first of them ends 
with his retirement from the rep- 
resentation of Newark. The central part ranges 
from 1847 t^ 1868. Happily the third is still 
incomplete." The first division, according to 
Dr. Russell, of this remarkable life, we have 
considered, and we now pass on to the develop- 
ment of the second period. The causes which 
led up to Mr. Gladstone's retirement from the 
representation for Newark to that of Oxford we 
will now proceed to trace. 

The agitation by the ablest orators against 
the corn laws had been going on for ten years, 
when an announcement was made in the " Times " 
of December 4, 1845, ^^^^ Parliament would be 
convened the first week in January, and that the 
Queen's address would recommend the immediate 
consideration of the corn laws, preparatory to 
226 



Member for Oxford 227 

their total abolition. This startling news took 
the other daily papers by surprise, for there had 
been recently a lull in the agitation, and several 
of them contradicted it positively. Yet the news- 
papers had noticed the unusual occurrence of four 
cabinet meetings in one week. The original 
statement was confirmed. The ministry was 
pledged to support the measure. The hour had 
come, the doom of the corn laws was sealed. 
Mr. Gladstone's thoughts and labors for some 
years past had been leading him away from 
Protection, in which he had been brought up, in 
the direction of Free Trade ; and although he 
was unable to participate in the last part of the 
struggle in Parliament, because he was not a 
member of the House, he was yet in harmony 
with Sir Robert Peel, and indeed is said to have 
converted the Premier to Free Trade views. 
Such a change of views was not the sudden 
impulse of an hour. The next step was to 
announce his changed convictions. And so upon 
other occasions in his life, his attitude on the 
question of the corn laws led to his separation 
from some old and greatly cherished political 
and personal friends, and among the first to 
disapprove of his new departure must have been 
his own father, who would thinV. his son was 
going to ruin the country. 

The Duke of Buccleuch and Lord Stanley 
informed Sir Robert Peel that they could not 



228 William E. Gladstone 

support a measure for the repeal of the corn 
laws, and Sir Robert Peel, being doubtful whether 
he could carry through the proposed measure 
in the face of such opposition, tendered his 
resignation as premier to the Queen. Lord John 
Russell was called upon to form a new ministry, 
but, having failed in this, the Queen desired 
Sir Robert Peel to withdraw his resignation, and 
resume the head of the government again. 

It was found when the list of the new Peel 
Cabinet was published, that Mr. Gladstone was 
a member of it, having accepted the office of 
Colonial Secretary, in the place of Lord Stanley, 
who had resigned because not in sympathy with 
the proposed movement and of repeal. Accept- 
ing office in a ministry pledged to repeal the 
corn laws led to the retirement of Mr. Gladstone 
from the House of Commons as the representa- 
tive for Newark. The Duke of New Castle, the 
patron and friend of Mr. Gladstone, was an 
ardent Protectionist, and could not sanction the 
candidature of a supporter of Free Trade princi- 
ples. His patronage was therefore necessarily 
withdrawn from Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, the 
Duke had turned his own son, Lord Lincoln, out 
of the representation of Nottinghamshire for 
accepting office under Sir Robert Peel, and he 
naturally showed no mercy to the brilliant but 
wayward politician, whom his favor had made 
member for Newark. Besides, Mr. Gladstone felt 



MEMBER FOR OXFORD 229 



he held opposite principles from those lie held 
when elected, and that unless the constituency 
had changed with him, he could no longer 
honorably continue to represent them, even if the 
influence and friendship of the Duke permitted it. 
Accordingly he did not offer himself for 
re-election, but retired and issued an address to 
the electors of Newark, dated January 5, 1846, 
of which the following is an extract: ''By 
accepting the ofi&ce of Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, I have ceased to be your representative 
in Parliament. On several accounts I should 
have been peculiarly desirous at the present time 
of giving you an opportunity to pronounce your 
constitutional judgment on my public conduct, 
by soliciting at your hands a renewal of the 
trust which I have already received from you on 
five successive occasions, and held during a period 
of thirteen years. But as I have good reason to 
believe that a candidate recommended to your 
favor through local connections may ask your 
suffrages, it becomes my very painful duty to 
announce to you on that ground alone my retire- 
ment from a position which has afforded me so 
much of honor and of satisfaction." Mr. Glad- 
stone further goes on to explain that he accepted 
ofEce because he held that '' it was for those who 
believed the Government was acting according to 
the demands of public duty to testify that 
belief, however limited their sphere might be, by 



230 William E. Gladstone 

their co-operation." He had acted ^' in obedience 
to the clear and imperious call of public 
obligation." 

It was in this way that Mr. Gladstone 
became a voluntary exile from the House of 
Commons during this important season, and took 
no part in the debates, his personal powerful 
advocacy being lost in the consideration of the 
great measure before the House. He was a 
member of the Cabinet, but not of the House of 
Commons. It was no secret, however, that he was 
the most advanced Free Trader in the Peel 
Cabinet, and that the policy of the government 
in regard to this great measure of 1846 was to 
a large extent moulded by him. 

It is also known that his representations of 
the effects of Free Trade on the industry of the 
country and the general well-being of the people 
strengthened the Premier in his resolve to sweep 
away the obnoxious corn laws. His pamphlet 
on recent commercial legislation had prepared 
the way for the later momentous changes ; and 
to Mr. Gladstone is due much of the credit for 
the speedy consummation of the Free Trade 
policy of the Peel Ministry. Mr. Gladstone may 
be regarded as the pioneer of the movement. 

Just at this time a calamity occurred in 
Ireland which furnished Sir Robert Peel an 
additional argument for the prompt repeal of the 
corn laws ; namely, a prospective famine, owing 



Member for Oxford 231 

to the failure of the potato crop. With threatened 
famine in Ireland, such as had never been 
experienced, the Prime Minister saw clearly that 
corn must be admitted into the country free of 
dnty. The Anti-Corn Law League was growing 
powerful and even irresistible, while both in 
England and Ireland many landlords of influence, 
who did not belong to the League, were in 
sympathy with the movement started by the 
Premier and ready to extend to him a hearty 
support. 

But the friends of Protection did not leave 
the Premier without opposition. Knowing that 
Sir Robert Peel's personal influence was greater 
than that of any minister who had " virtually 
governed the empire," they used every means at 
their command, fair and unfair, to defeat the bill. 
However, their efforts were destined to failure. 
Some contended that the presentation and 
passage of the corn law repeal bill ought to be 
left to the Liberals. But Free Trade had not 
received the support of every member of the 
Liberal party, and Sir Robert Peel was in a 
position to carry out the measure, and it was not 
in accordance with the wisdom of practical 
politics to halt. Indeed, at this very juncture, 
Mr. Cobden wrote to the Premier that he had 
the power, and that it would be disastrous to the 
country for hyn to hesitate. Writing from 
Edinburgh, Lord John Russell announced his 



232 William E. Gladstone 

conversion to total and immediate repeal of tlie 
corn laws. Sir Robert Peel hesitated no longer, 
but, feeling tbat tbe crisis bad arrived, determined 
to grapple witb it. It was duty to country 
before and above fancied loyalty to party to be 
considered. It is strange wbat remedies some 
men deem sensible, suggested to prevent famine 
in Ireland. 

'' Obviously the Government was in difficul- 
ties. Wbat those difficulties were it was not 
hard to guess. In the previous autumn it had 
become known that, after a long season of sunless 
wet, the potatoes had everywhere been attacked 
by an obscure disease. The failure of this crop 
meant an Irish famine. The steps suggested to 
meet this impending calamity were strange 
enough. The head of the English peerage 
recommended the poor to rely on curry-powder 
as a nutritious and satisfying food. Another 
duke thought that the government could show 
no favor to a population almost in a state of 
rebellion, but that individuals might get up a 
subscription. A noble lord, harmonizing mater- 
ialism and faith, urged the government to 
encourage the provision of salt fish, and at the 
same time to appoint a day of public acknowledg- 
ment of our dependence on Divine goodness. 
The council of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
numbering some of the wealthiest noblemen and 
squires in England, were not ashamed to lecture 



MEMBER FOR OXFORD 233 

the laborers on the sustaining properties of thrice- 
boiled bones." 

When Parliament assembled the Premier 
entered into an explanation of the late ministerial 
crisis, and unfolded his projected plans. He said 
that the failure of the potato crop had led to the 
dissolution of the late government, that matters 
now could brook no further delay ; that prompt 
action must now be taken on the Corn Laws ; 
that the progress of reason and truth demanded 
it ; that his opinions on the subject of Protection 
had undergone a great change ; that the experi- 
ence of the past three years confirmed him in his 
new views ; that he could not conceal the knowl- 
edge of his convictions, however much it might 
lay him open to the charge of inconsistency ; 
that, though accused of apathy and neglect, he 
and his colleagues were even then engaged in 
the most extensive and arduous inquiries into 
the true state of Ireland; and that, as these 
inquiries progressed, he has been forced to the 
conclusion that the protection policy was unsound 
and consequently untenable. 

It is worthy of note that Mr. Disraeli, the 
future Parliamentary rival of Mr. Gladstone, took 
part, as a member of the House of Commons, in 
the discussion of the question under consideration. 
The following words show his attitude : '' To the 
opinions which I have expressed in this House 
in favor of Protection I adhere. They sent me 



234 William E. Gladstone 

to this House, and if I Had relinquished them I 
should have relinquished my seat also." ^' It 
would be an unprofitable talk," writes Barnett 
Smith, '' to unravel the many inconsistencies of 
Lord Beaconsfield's career ; but with regard to this 
deliverance upon Protection, the curious in such 
matters may turn back to the recojds of 1842, 
when they will discover that at that time he was 
quite prepared to advocate measures of a Free 
Trade character. But we must pass on from this 
important question of the Corn Laws, with the 
angry controversy to which it gave rise. Sir 
Robert Peel brought forward his measure, and 
after lengthened debate in both Houses, it became 
law, and grain was admitted into English ports 
under the new tariff." 

After all their success in carrying through 
the important Corn Law Repeal scheme, the 
ministry of Sir Robert Peel was doomed to fall 
upon an Irish question. The very day that 
brought their victory in the passage of the Corn 
Law Repeal Act in the House of Lords saw the 
defeat of the ministry in the House of Commons 
on their bill for the suppression of outrage in 
Ireland. Sir Robert Peel found himself in a 
minority of 73 and therefore tendered his resigna- 
tion. It was accepted and Sir Robert Peel went 
out of of&ce forever. Lord John Russell was sent 
for by the Queen, and he succeeded in forming 
a Whig Ministry, 




|^Wy/>-»* (C >>//g 



L9ao AnEfiDR/rx 






Gladstone's Early English Contemporaries. 



Member for Oxford 237 

Mr. Gladstone's return to tlie Cabinet of Sir 
Robert Peel, as we have seen, cost bim bis seat in 
tbe House of Commons. It was not until tbe 
brief session of 1847, tbat ^^ appeared again in 
Parliament. Tbe Queen dissolved Parliament 
in person, July, 23d. Tbe election succeeding 
turned in many instances upon ecclesiastical ques- 
tions, and especially upon tbe Maynootb grant. 
It was announced early in 1847 tbat one of 
tbe two members of tbe House of Commons for 
tbe University of Oxford intended to retire at tbe 
next general election. Mr. Canning bad pro- 
nounced tbe representation of tbe university as 
tbe most coveted prize of public life, and Mr. 
Gladstone bimself confessed tbat be '' desired it 
witb an almost passionate fondness." Mr. Glad- 
stone, as a graduate of Oxford, was looked upon 
not only by bis contemporaries, but by bis 
seniors and tbose wbo came after bim, witb 
feelings of entbusiastic admiration. Tbe feeling 
tben was reciprocal, and be was proposed for tbe 
vacant seat. Sir R. N. Inglis was secure in bis 
seat, and so tbe contest lay between Mr. Glad- 
stone and Mr. Roiiffld, wbo was of tbe ultra- 
Protestant and Tory scbool. Tbe contest excited 
tbe keenest interest and was expected on all 
bands to be very close. 

Mr. Gladstone in bis address to tbe electors 
of bis Alma Mater confessed tbat in tbe earlier 
part of bis public life be bad been an advocate 



238 William E. Gladstone 

for the exclusive support of tHe national religion 
of tlie state, but it had been in vain ; the time was 
against bim. He said : '' I found that scarcely 
a year passed without the adoption of some fresh 
measure involving the national recognition and 
the national support of various forms of religion, 
and, in particular, that a recent and^ fresh pro- 
vision had been made for the propagation from a 
public chair of Arian or Socinian doctrines. The 
question remaining for me was whether, aware 
of the opposition of the English people, I should 
set down as equal to nothing, in a matter pri- 
marily connected not with our own but with their 
priesthood, the wishes of the people of Ireland ; 
and whether I should avail myself of the popular 
feeling in regard to the Roman Catholics for the 
purpose of enforcing against them a system 
which we had ceased by common consent to 
enforce against Arians — a system, above all, of 
which I must say that it never can be conform- 
able to policy, to justice or even to decency, when 
it has become avowedly partial and one-sided in 
its application." 

This address intensified the determination 
of those opposed to Mr. Gladstone to defeat him. 
A great portion of the press was, however, in his 
favor. Some of the journals that were enthusi- 
astic for Mr. Gladstone were very bitter against 
Mr. Round. Mr. Gladstone's distinguished talent 
and industry were lauded, as well as his earnest 



Member for Oxford 239 

attachment to tlie Cliurcli of England. He had, 
however, renounced the exclusiveness of his 
politico-ecclesiastical principles, and no longer 
importuned Parliament to ignore all forms of 
religion but those established by law, or which 
were exactly coincident with his own belief. 
" His election," declared one journal, " unlike 
that of Mr. Round, while it sends an important 
member to the House of Commons, will certainly 
be creditable, and may be valuable to the 
university ; and we heartily hope that no negli- 
gence or hesitation among his supporters maj 
impede his success." Even outside of church 
circles the election was regarded with great 
interest. 

The nomination took place July 29th. After 
the usual ceremony, the voting commenced in 
convocation-house, which was densely crowded. 
So great was the pressure of the throng that men 
fainted and had to be carried out. Mr. Coleridge, 
afterward Lord Coleridge, was the secretary of 
Mr. Gladstone's committee. Distinguished men, 
among them Sir Robert Peel, his colleague in the 
Cabinet, came from a great distance to " plump " 
for Mr. Gladstone. The venerable Dr. Routh, 
then nearly ninety-two years old, came forth 
from his retirement at Magdalen College to vote 
for him. Mrs. Gladstone, according to Mr. Hope- 
Scott, was an indefatigable canvasser for her 
husband. At the close of the poll the vote stood ; 



240 William E. Gladstone 

Inglis, 1700; Gladstone, 997; Round, 824. Of 
course Sir Robert Inglis, with his " prehistoric 
Toryism," stood at the head. To the supporters 
of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Round must be added 
154 who were paired. Mr. Gladstone received a 
majority of 173 over his ultra-Protestant oppo- 
nent. The total number of those polled exceeded 
that registered at any previous election, showing 
the intense and general interest in the "result. 

This period of Mr. Gladstone's life has been 
very properly styled by one of his biographers, 
as the transition period. '' On one side the Con- 
servative Free-trader clings fondly and tenaciously 
to the Toryism of his youth, on another, he is 
reaching out toward new realms of Liberal 
thought and action. He opposes marriage with 
a deceased wife's sister on theological and social 
grounds, asserting roundly that such marriage 
is ^ contrary to the law of God, declared for three 
thousand years and upwards.' He deprecates the 
appointment of a Commission to enquire into 
the Universities, because it will deter intending 
benefactors from effecting their munificent inten- 
tions. He argues for a second « chamber in 
Australian legislatures, citing, perhaps a little 
unfortunately, the constitutional example of 
contemporary France. In all these utterances it 
is not hard to read the influence of the traditions 
in which he was reared, or of the ecclesiastical 
community which he represents in Parliament. 



Member for Oxford 241 

" Yet even in the theological domain a 
tendency towards Liberalism shows itself. His 
hatred of Erastianism is evinced by his gallant 
but unsuccessful attempt to secure for the clergy 
and laity of each colonial diocese the power of 
self-government. Amid the indignant protests of 
his Tory allies, and in opposition to his own 
previous speech and vote, he vindicates the policy 
of admitting the Jews to Parliament. He defends 
the establishment of diplomatic relations with 
the Court of Rome ; he supports the alteration of 
the parliamentary oath ; and, though he will not 
abet an abstract attack on Church Rates, he 
contends that their maintainance involves a cor- 
responding duty to provide accommodation in the 
church for the very poorest of the congregation. 

" On the commercial side his Liberalism is 
rampant. With even fanatical faith he clings to 
Free Trade as the best guarantee for our national 
stability amid the crash of the dynasties and 
constitutions which went down in '48. He thun- 
ders against the insidious dangers of reciprocity. 
He desires, by reforming the laws which govern 
navigation, to make the ocean, ^ that great high- 
way of nations, as free to the ships that traverse 
its bosom as to the winds that sweep it.^ 

'' And so the three years — 1847, 1848, 1849 — 
rolled by, full of stirring events in Europe and 
in England, in Church and in State, but 
marked by no special incidents in the life of Mr. 



242 William E. Gladstone 

Gladstone. For him these years were a period 
of mental growth, of transition, of development. 
A change was silently proceeding, which was not 
completed for twenty years, if, indeed, it has been 
completed yet. ' There have been,' he wrote in 
later days to Bishop Wilber force, ' two great deaths, 
or transmigrations of spirit, in my political 
existence — one, very slow, the breaking of ties 
with my original party.' This was now in pro- 
gress. The other will be narrated in due course." 

One of the features of the general election 
of 1847 1-^^^ excited the wildest popular comment 
was the election of Baron Rothschild for the City 
of London. There was nothing illegal in the 
election of a Jew, but he was virtually precluded 
from taking his seat in the House of Commons, 
because the law required every member to sub- 
scribe not only to the Christian religion, but to 
the Protestant Episcopal faith. To obviate this 
difficulty. Lord John Russell, soon after Parlia- 
ment assembled, offered a resolution afS.rming the 
eligibility of Jews to all functions and ofiices to 
which Roman Catholics were admissible by law. 
Sir R. H. Inglis opposed the resolution and Mr. 
Gladstone, his colleague, supported it. 

Mr. Gladstone inquired whether there were 
any grounds for the disqualification of the Jews 
which distinguished them from any other classes 
in the community. They contended for a " Chris- 
tian Parliament, but the present measure did not 



Member for Oxford 243 

make severance between politics and religion, it 
only amounted to a declaration that there was no 
necessity for excluding a Jew, as such, from an 
assembly in which every man felt sure that a vast 
and overwhelming majority of its members would 
always be Christian. It was said th%t by admit- 
ting a few Jews they would un- Christianize 
Parliament ; that was true in word, but not in 
substance." He had no doubt that the majority 
of the members who composed it would always 
perform their obligations on the true faith of 
a Christian. It was too late to say that the 
measure was un-Christian, and that it would call 
down the vengeance of heaven. When he opposed 
the last law of the removal of Jewish disabilities, 
he foresaw that if he gave the Jew municipal, 
magisterial and executive functions, we could not 
refuse him legislative functions any longer. 
'' The Jew was refused entrance into the House 
because he would then be a maker of the law ; but 
who made the maker of the law ? .The consti- 
tuencies ; and into these constituencies had been 
admitted the Jews. Now were the constituencies 
Christian constituencies ? If they were, was it 
probable that the Parliament would cease to be a 
Christian Parliament ? " 

Mr. Gladstone admitted the force of the 
prayer in Bishop Wilberforce's petition, that in 
view of this concession measures should be taken 
to give greater vigor to the Church, and thus 



244 William E. Gladstone 

operate to the prevention of an organic cHange 
in the relations between Chnrch and State. In 
concluding his defence of Lord John Russell's 
resolution Mr. Gladstone expressed the opinion 
that if they admitted Jews into Parliament, preju- 
dice might be awakened for awhile, but the good 
sense of the people would soon allay it, and 
members would have the consolation of knowing 
that in case of difficulty they had yielded to a sense 
of justice, and by so doing had not disparaged 
religion or lowered Christianity, but rather had 
elevated both in all reflecting and well-regulated 
minds. The logic of this speech could not be 
controverted, though Mr. Newdegate declared that 
Mr. Gladstone would never have gained his 
election for the University of Oxford had his 
sentiments on the Jewish question been then 
known. The resolution of Lord John Russell 
was carried by a large majority, whereupon he 
announced first a resolution, and then a bill, in 
accordance* with its terms. 

The year 1848 was a year of excitement and 
revolution. All Europe was in a state of agita- 
tion, and France by a new revolution presented 
another one of her national surprises. The news 
of a revolution in France caused the greatest 
perturbation throughout England, and disturb- 
ances in the capital of the country. Great 
demonstrations were made at Trafalgar Square 
and Charing Cross, March 6th, but the meetings 



Member for Oxford 245 

assumed more of a burlesque than of a serious 
character. In Glasgow and other parts of the 
country there were serious riots. Shops were 
sacked, and the military was called out to quell 
the disturbance, which was not effected until the 
soldiers fired with fatal results upon the rioters. 
There were uprisings and mob violence also at 
Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, but they were 
of a less formidable character. A Chartist meet- 
ing was held on Kennington Common, March 
13th, but, though the meeting had been looked 
forward to with great apprehensions by all lovers 
of law and order, yet it passed off without the 
serious results anticipated. 

Though great preparations were made in 
view of the demonstration, yet, fortunately it 
passed off without loss of life. The meeting 
however had furnished a pretext for the gathering 
of a lawless mob, although but few were politically 
concerned in it. It was deemed necessary, to 
provide against every emergency, so special consta- 
bles in great numbers were sworn in previous to 
the meetings, and it is interesting to observe that 
amongst the citizens who came forward in London 
to enroll themselves as preservers of the peace of 
society were William Ewart Gladstone, the Duke 
of Norfolk, the Earl of Derby, and Prince Louis 
Napoleon, afterwards Emperor of France. . 

The people were becoming dissatisfied with 
the government of the country, particularly with 



246 William E. Gladstone 

its financial measures. A deficiency of two million 
pounds appeared, and additional taxation would 
be necessary owing to the Caffre War. It was 
therefore proposed to continue the income tax for 
five years and increase it slightly. Owing to the 
distress in Ireland it was not proposed to extend 
the operation of this measure to that country. 
The property tax was defended on the same 
principles laid down by Mr. Pitt, and in 1842, by 
Sir Robert Peel. But this scheme was bitterly 
opposed and many attributed the depressed con- 
dition of the finances to free trade. Sir Robert 
Peel decided to support the proposed tax for three 
years. Mr. Disraeli desired the success of Sir 
Robert Peel's policy, and described himself as 
a ^' free-trader, but not a free-booter of the 
Manchester school ;" and he dubbed the blue- 
book of the Import Duties Committee " the 
greatest work of imagination that the nineteenth 
century has produced." He said that the govern- 
ment, by acting upon it, and taking it for a 
guide, resembled a man smoking a cigar on a 
barrel of gunpowder. 

This epigrammatic speech of Mr. Disraeli 
brought Mr. Gladstone to his feet. He said, by 
way of introduction, that he could not hope to 
sustain the lively interest created by the remark- 
able speech of his predecessor — a display to which 
he felt himself unequal — he would pass over 
the matters of a personal description touched 



Member for Oxford 247 

upon by tlie honorable gentleman, and con- 
fine himself to defending the policy wbicli 
had been assailed. Mr. Gladstone then dem- 
onstrated, by a series of elaborate statistics, 
the complete success of Sir Robert Peel's policy. 
He also said, that the confidence of the public 
would be greatly shaken by an adverse vote, and 
he alluded to the unsettled condition of affairs in 
the Cabinet. " I am sure," said Mr. Gladstone, 
" that this House of Commons will prove itsel/ 
to be worthy of the Parliaments which preceded 
it, worthy of the Sovereign which it has been 
called to advise, and worthy of the people which 
it has been chosen to represent, by sustaining 
this nation, and enabling it to stand firm in the 
midst of the convulsions that shake European 
society ; by doing all that pertains to us for the 
purpose of maintaining social order, the stability 
of trade, and the means of public employment ; 
and by discharging our consciences, on our own 
part, under the dif&cult circumstances of the 
crisis, in the perfect trust that if we set a good 
example to the nations — for whose interests we 
are appointed to consult— they, too, will stand 
firm as they have in other times of almost desper- 
ate emergency; and that through their good sense, 
their moderation, and their attachment to the 
institutions of the country, we shall see these 
institutions still exist, a blessing and a benefit to 
prosperity, whatever alarms and whatever mis- 



24S William E. Gladstone 

fortunes may unfortunately befall otHer portions 
of civilized Europe." 

" It was fortunate for the future interests of 
the country," says Dr. Smith, his biographer, 
" that the proposals of the government were at 
this juncture supported by a great majority of 
the House of Commons. In a moment of un- 
reasoning panic there was some danger of the 
adoption of a reactionary policy — a step that 
would have lost to the country those blessings 
which it subsequently enjoyed as the outcome of 
Free Trade." 

May 15, Mr. Labouchere, President of the^ 
Board of Trade, proposed a plan for the modifica- 
tion of the navigation laws. Reserving the 
coasting trade and fisheries of Great Britain and ' 
the Colonies, it was proposed '' to throw open the 
whole navigation of the country, of every sort and 
description." But the Queen claimed the right 
of putting such restrictions as she saw fit upon 
the navigation of foreign countries, if those 
countries did not meet England on equal terms ; 
and that each colony should be allowed to throw 
open its coasting trade to foreign countries. Mr. 
Gladstone made a lengthy speech, examining 
closely the operation of existing laws, and show- 
ing the necessity for their repeal. With regard 
to the power claimed by the Queen in Council, with 
a view to enforcing reciprocity, Mr. Gladstone 
said, ^' I confess it appears to me there is a great 



Member for Oxford 249 

objection to conferring such a power as that 
which is proposed to be given to the Queen in 
Council." He contended also for a gradual 
change in the laws. The policy of excluding the 
coasting trade from the measure he also con- 
demned. '' It would have been much more frank 
to have offered to admit the Americans to our 
coasting trade if they would admit us to theirs." 
If England and America concurred in setting an 
example to the world, he hoped we should " live 
to see the ocean, that great highway of nations, 
as free to the ships that traverse its bosom as 
the winds that sweep it. England would then 
have achieved another triumph, and have made 
another powerful contribution to the prosperity 
of mankind." The bill was postponed until 
the following year. 

During the session of 1848 Mr. Gladstone 
spoke upon the proposed grant of Vancouver's 
Island to the Hudson's Bay Company ; and upon 
the Sugar Duties Bill ; but the most important 
speech delivered by him at that time was upon a 
measure to legalize diplomatic relations with the 
Court of Rome. It was objected that thus 
recognizing the spiritual governor of Rome and 
of all the Roman Catholic population of the 
world, would neither conciliate the affections 
of the Protestants, nor satisfy the wishes of the 
Roman Catholics, who had denounced it strongly 
to the Pope. 



250 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone took broad and comprehensive 
views of the question. To some features of the 
Bill he was opposed, but was in favor of its 
principle. It was unfortunate as to time, owing 
to the condition of affairs in Italy. England 
must take one of two positions. If she declined 
political communication with the S^e of Rome, 
she had no right to complain of any steps which 
the Pope might take with respect to the adminis- 
tration of his own ecclesiastical affairs ; but an 
act so directly in contravention of the laws of the 
land as the partitioning of the country into arch- 
bishoprics and bishoprics was a most unfortunate 
proceeding; wrong because it was generally and 
justly offensive to the feelings of the people of 
England, and totally unnecessary, as he believed, 
for Roman Catholic purposes, but also because 
it ill assorted with the grounds on which the 
Parliament was invited by the present bill to 
establish definite relations with the See of Rome. 
For one hundred years after the Reformation the 
Pope was actually in arms for the purpose of 
recovering by force his lost dominions in this 
country. It was only natural, therefore, that we 
should have prohibited relations with the See of 
Rome when it attacked the title of the Sovereign 
of these realms, but there was no such reason for 
continuing the prohibition at the present moment. 

Those who have studied Mr. Gladstone's 
career carefully attest that this speech would 



Member for Oxford 251 

have been impossible from his lips ten years 
before the time it was delivered ; and early in 
the next session of Parliament he delivered 
another speech which furnishes ns an example 
of the growth of his liberal views in matters of 
conscience. Lord John Russell proposes further 
relief -upon the matter of oaths to be taken by 
members of Parliament. Mr. Gladstone said 
that the civil political claims of the Jew should 
not be barred, and he deprecated the tendency to 
degenerate formalism in oaths, but he was glad 
that the words, ''on the true faith of a Christian" 
in respect to all Christian members of the House 
of Commons had been retained. He also, later 
in the session, favored correcting the enormous 
evils growing out of the Church rate system, with 
taxation of all the further support of the State 
Church. He did not believe in imposing an 
uncompensated burden upon any man. Every 
man contributing his quota was entitled to 
demand a free place in the house of his Maker. 
"But the centre and best parts of the Church 
were occupied by pews exclusively for the middle 
classes, while the laboring classes were jealously 
excluded from almost every part of light and 
hearing in the Churches, and were treated in 
a manner most painful to reflect upon." 

When Mr. Labouchere re-introduced the 
ministerial bill for the repeal of the Navigation 
Laws, in the session of 1849, Mr. Gladstone 



252 William E. Gladstone 

supported generally the measure in a full and 
exhaustive speech. He favored the bill with 
certain modifications. The Marquis of Granby 
expressed fears at the consequences of the change 
proposed, and Mr. Gladstone answered him: 
"The noble Marquis," he observed, ''desired to 
expel the vapours and exhalations that had been 
raised with regard to the principle of political 
economy, and which vapours and exhalations I 
find for the most part in the fears with which 
those changes are regarded. The noble Marquis 
consquently hoped that the Trojan horse would 
not be allowed to come within the walls of 
Parliament. But however applicable the figures 
may be to other plans, it does not, I submit, apply 
to the mode of proceeding I venture to recommend 
to the House, because we follow the precedent of 
what Mr. Huskisson did before us. Therefore 
more than one moiety of the Trojan horse has 
already got within the citadel — it has been there 
for twenty-five years, and yet what has proceeded 
from its bowels has only tended to augment the 
rate of increase in the progress of your shipping. 
Therefore, let us not be alarmed by vague and 
dreamy ratiocinations of evil, which had never 
been wanting on any occasion, and which never 
will be wanting so long as this is a free State, 
wherein every man can find full vent and scope 
for the expression, not only of his principles, 
but of his prejudices and his fears. Let us 




(TT,AnsTn"Nn?:'s T.atft}. F.vnT.isTT r!m*jTF.MPn"RAT}.TTCS. 



Member for Oxford 255 

not be deterred by those apprebensions from 
giving a calm and serious examination to this 
question, connected as it is with tbe welfare of 
our country. Let us follow steadily tbe ligbt of 
experience, and be convinced tbat He wbo pre- 
served us during the past will also be sufficient 
to sustain us during all tbe dangers of tbe 
future." 

Mr. Disraeli seized tbe opportunity to make 
a caustic speech, in which he fiercely attacked 
both Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Gladstone, 
and alluded sarcastically to their ''great sacri- 
fices, " and said that the latter was about to give 
up that good development of the principle of 
reciprocity which the House had waited for with 
so much suspense. Mr. Gladstone replied, " I am 
perfectly satisfied to bear his sarcasm, good 
humoured and brilliant as it is, while I can appeal 
to his judgment as to whether the step I have 
taken was unbecoming in one who conscientiously 
differs with him on the freedom of trade, and has 
endeavoured to realize it ; because, so far from its 
being the cause of the distress of the country, it 
has been, under the mercy of God, the most signal 
and effectual means of mitigating this distress, 
and accelerating the dawn of the day of returning 
prosperity '' 

Mr. Gladstone spoke also during the session 
upon the subject of Colonial Reform which came 



256 William E. Gladstone 

before the House on several occasions, and es- 
pecially in connection witH riots in Canada ; and 
on a bill for tbe removal of legal restrictions 
against marriage witb a deceased wife's sister. 
He opposed tbe latter measure upon theological, 
social, and moral grounds, and begged the House 
to repeat the almost entire sentiment of the country 
respecting the bill. To do otherwise would be 
to inflict upon the Church the misfortune of 
having anarchy introduced among its ministers. 
He hoped they would do all that in them lay to 
maintain the strictness of the obligations of 
marriage, and the purity of the hallowed sphere 
of domestic life. The bill was rejected. 

In the Parliamentary session of 1850 one of 
the chief topics of discussion was the great depres- 
sion of the agricultural interests of the country. 
The country was at peace, the revenues were in 
a good condition, foreign trade had increased, but 
the farmers still made loud complaints of the 
disastrous condition, which they attributed to 
free-trade measures, which they contended had 
affected the whole of the agricultural interests. 
Consequently, February 19th, Mr. Disraeli moved 
for a committee of the whole House to consider 
such a revision of the Poor Laws of the United 
Kingdom as might mitigate the distress of the 
agricultural classes. Some thought that this was 
a movement against free-trade, but Mr. Gladstone 
courted the fullest investigation, and seeing no 



Member for Oxford 257 

danger in tHe motion, voted for it. However, the 
motion of Mr. Disraeli was lost. 

Mr. Gladstone likewise favored the extension 
of the benefits of Constitutional government to 
certain of the colonies, — for example as set forth 
in the Australian Colonies Government Bill ; 
and twice during the session he addressed the 
House on questions connected with slavery, and 
upon motion of Mr. Haywood for an inquiry into 
the state of the English and Irish universities, 
and the government unexpectedly gave their 
consent to the issuing of a Royal Commission 
for the purpose. Mr. Gladstone said that any 
person who might be deliberating with himself 
whether he would devote a portion of his substance 
for prosecuting the objects of learning, civilization 
and religion, would be checked by the prospect 
that at any given time, and under any given 
circumstances, a minister, who was the creature 
of a political majority, might institute a state 
inquiry into the mode in which the funds he 
might devise were administered. It was not wise 
to discourage eleemosynary establishments. It 
would be better for the. Crown to see what could 
be done to improve the colleges by administering 
existing laws. 

In reviewing the past ten years we exclaim, 
truly has the period from 1841 to 1850, in the 
political life of Mr. Gladstone, been called a 
memorable decade. 



258 William E. Gladstone 

It was in the year 1850, as we have seen, 
that the Gladstones were plunged into domestic 
sorrow by the death of their little daughter, 
Catharine Jessy ; and it was this same year that 
brought t6 Mr. Gladstone another grief from a 
very different source. This second bereavement 
was caused by the withdrawal of two 0/ his oldest 
and most intimate friends, the Archdeacon of 
Chichester and Mr. J. R. Hope, from the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church of England and their union 
with the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Hope, who 
became Hope-Scott on succeeding to the estate of 
Abbotsford, was the gentleman who helped 
Mr. Gladstone in getting through the press his 
book on Church and State, revising, correct- 
ing and reading proof. The Archdeacon, after- 
wards Cardinal Manning, had, from his under- 
graduate days, exercised a powerful influence 
over his contemporaries. He was gifted with 
maturity of intellect and character, had great 
shrewdness, much tenacity of will, a cogent, 
attractive style, combined with an impressive air 
of authority, to which the natural advantages of 
person and bearing added force. Besides having 
these qualifications for leadership, he had fervid 
devotion, enlarged acquaintance with life and 
men, and an '' unequalled gift of administration;" 
though a priest, he was essentially a statesman, 
and had at one time contemplated a political 



Member for Oxford 259 

career. He was Mr. Gladstone's most trusted 
counsellor and most intimate friend. 

The cause, or rather occasion for these 
secessions from the Church of England to the 
Church of Rome, is thus related : ''An Evan- 
gelical clergyman, the Rev. G. C. Gorham, had 
been presented to a living in the diocese of Exeter ; 
and that truly formidable prelate, Bishop Phill- 
potts, refused to institute him, alleging that he 
held heterodox views on the subject of Holy 
Baptism. After complicated litigation, the 
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided, 
on March 8, 1850, that the doctrine held by the 
incriminated clergyman was not such as to bar 
him from preferment in the Church of England. 
This decision naturally created great commotion 
in the Church. Men's minds were rudely 
shaken. The orthodoxy of the Church of Eng- 
land seemed to be jeopardized, and the supremacy 
of the Privy Council was in a matter touching 
religious doctrine felt to be an intolerable 

burden." 

Mr. Gladstone, as well as others, was pro- 
foundly agitated by these events, and June 4th 
he expressed his views in a letter to Dr. Blom- 
field, Bishop of London. The theme of his letter 
was, " The Royal Supremacy, viewed in the light 
of Reason, History and the Constitution." He 
contended that the Royal Supremacy, as settled 
at the Reformation, was not inconsistent with the 



26o William E. Gladstone 

spiritual life and inherent jurisdiction of the 
Churcli, but the recent establishment of the 
Privy Council as the ultimate court of appeal in 
religious causes was " an injurious and even 
dangerous departure from the Reformation 
settlement." 

In this letter Mr. Gladstone said, in sum- 
ming up : "I find it no part of my duty, my 
lord, to idolize the Bishops of England and 
Wales, or to place my conscience in their keep- 
ing. I do not presume or dare to speculate upon 
their particular decisions ; but I say that, acting 
jointly, publicly, solemnly, responsibly, they are 
the best and most natural organs of the j.udicial 
office of the Church in matters of heresy, and, 
according to reason, history and the constitution, 
in that subject-matter the fittest and safest coun- 
sellors of the Crown." 

But this view regarding the Church of Eng- 
land did not suit some minds, and among them 
the two friends with whom Mr. Gladstone had, 
up to this time, acted in religious matters. 
These troubles in the Church so powerfully 
affected them that they withdrew. 

The following quotation shows Mr. Glad- 
stone's firmness in regard to his own choice of 
the Protestant Christianity over and above 
Catholicism, In a letter, written in 1873, to 
Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, of Abbotsford, the daughter 
of his friend Hope, he thus writes of an interview 



Member for Oxford 



261 



had with her father : ''It must have been about 
this time that I had another conversation with 
him about religion, of which, again, I exactly 
recollect the spot. Regarding (forgive me) the 
adoption of the Roman religion by members of 
the Church of England as nearly the greatest 
calamity that could befall Christian faith in this 
country, I rapidl}^ became alarmed when these 
changes began ; and very long before the great 
luminary. Dr. Newman, drew after him, it may 
well be said, ' the third part of the stars of 
Heaven.' This alarm I naturally and freely 
expressed to the man upon whom I most relied, 
your father." 




Gladstone in Wales ; addressing a meeting at the foot of Snowden 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Neapolitan Prisons 

/IN considering Mr. Gladstone's exposure 
^^y of the cruelties practiced in tlie prisons 
^^ of Naples, we are confronted witli his 
attitude in the House of Commons just 
before, in a case where the same prin- 
ciples seemed to be involved, and in which 
Mr. Gladstone took the directly opposite course. 
We refer to the Don Pacifico case. Both were 
at first merely personal questions, but finally 
became international. Mr. Gladstone to many 
appeared to take an inconsistent course in these 
seemingly similar cases, in that while opposing 
national intervention in the affairs of Don Pacifico, 
he tried to stir up all Europe for the relief of the 
sufferers in the Neapolitan prisons. " It is not 
a little remarkable that the statesman who had 
so lately and so vigorously denounced the ^ vain 
conception that we, forsooth, have a mission to 
be the censors of vice and folly, of abuse and 
imperfection, among the other countries of the 
wo^ld,' should now have found himself irresistibly 
262 



The Neapolitan Prisons 263 

impelled by conscience and humanity to under- 
take a signal and effective crusade against the 
domestic administration of a friendly power." 

The most memorable debate in the new 
chamber of the House of Commons, which was 
first occupied in 1850, was that associated with 
the name of Don Pacifico. It is however con- 
ceded that the circumstances from which it all 
proceeded were comparatively trivial in the 
extreme. Don Pacifico was a Maltese Jew and a 
British subject, dwelling at Athens. He had 
made himself distasteful to the people of Athens, 
and consequently his house was destroyed and 
robbed by a mob, April 4, 1847. He appealed to 
the government at Athens for redress, demanding 
over $150,000 indemnity for the loss of his 
property, among which " a peculiarly sumptuous 
bedstead figured largely." Don Pacifico's claim 
was unheeded, probably because it was exorbitant 
and the Greek government was poor. Lord 
Palmerston was then the Foreign Secretary of 
the English Government. He was rash and 
independent in his foreign policy, and often acted, 
as the Queen complained, without consultation 
and without the authority of the Sovereign. 

The Foreign Secretary had had other 
quarrels with the Government at Athens. Land 
belonging to an English resident in Athens had 
been seized without suf&cient compensation ; 
Ionian subjects of the English Crown had 



264 William E. Gladstone 

suffered hardships at the hands of the Greek 
authorities, and an English Midshipman had 
been arrested by mistake. Lord Palmerston 
looked upon these incidents, slight as they were 
in themselves, as indicative of a plot on the 
part of the French Minister against the English, 
and especially as the Greek Govern^ient was so 
dilatory in satisfying the English claims. '' This 
was enough. The outrage on Don Pacifico's bed- 
stead remained the head and front of Greek offend- 
ing, but Lord Palmerston included all the other 
slight blunders and delays of justice in one sweep- 
ing indictment ; made the private claims into a 
national demand, and peremptorily informed the 
Greek Government that they must pay what was 
demanded of them within a given time. The Gov- 
ernment hesitated, and the British fleet was 
ordered to the Piraeus, and seized all the Greek 
vessels which were found in the waters. Russia 
and France took umbrage at this high-handed pro- 
ceeding and championed Greece. Lord Palmers- 
ton informed them it was none of their business 
and stood firm. The French Ambassador was 
withdrawn from London, and for awhile the peace 
of Europe was menaced." The execution of the 
orders of Lord Palmerston was left with Admiral 
Sir William Parker, who was first to proceed to 
Athens with the English fleet, and failing to 
obtain satisfaction was to blockade the Piraeus, 
which instructions he faithfully obeyed. 



The Neapolitan Prisons 265 

The debate began in Parliament June 24, 
1850. The stability of the Whig administration, 
then in power, depended upon the results. In 
the House of Lords, Lord Stanley moved a reso- 
lution, which was carried, expressing regret that 
" various claims against the Greek Government, 
doubtful in point of justice and exaggerated in 
amount, have been enforced by coercive meas- 
ures, directed against the commerce and people 
of Greece, and calculated to endanger the con- 
tinuance of our friendly relations with foreign 
powers.'^ A counter-resolution was necessary in 
the House of Commons to offset the action of 
the Lords, so a Radical, Mr. Roebuck, much to 
the surprise of many, came to the defense of the 
Government and offered the following motion, 
which was carried: ''That the principles which 
have hitherto regulated the foreign policy of Her 
Majesty's Government are such as were required 
to preserve untarnished the honor and dignity of 
this country, and, in times of unexampled diffi- 
culty, the best calculated to maintain peace 
between England and the various nations of the 
world." 

The debate which followed, and which was 
prolonged over four nights, was marked on both 
sides by speeches of unusual oratorical power and 
brilliancy. The speeches of Lord Palmerston, 
Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Cockbum, Mr. Cobden, 
Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone were pronounced 



26b William E. Gladstone 

as remarkable orations. Sir Robert Peel made 
a powerful speecH against the Ministers, wHicli 
was made memorable not only for its eloquence, 
but because it was bis last. Lord Palmerston 
defended Himself vigorously in a speech of five 
hours' duration. ^'He spoke," said Mr. Glad- 
stone, '' from the dusk of one day to the dawn of 
the next." He defended his policy at every 
point. In every step taken he had been in- 
fluenced by the sole desire that the meanest, 
the poorest, even the most disreputable subject 
of the English Crown should be defended by the 
whole might of England against foreign oppres- 
sion. He reminded them of all that was implied 
in the Roman boast, Cwzs Rovtanus sum^ and 
urged the House to make it clear that a British 
subject, in whatever land he might be, should 
feel confident that the watchful eye and the 
strong arm of England could protect him. This 
could not be resisted. Civis Romaniis sum 
settled the question. 

Mr. Gladstone's reply was a masterpiece. 
It was exhaustive and trenchant, and produced 
a great effect. He first spoke upon the position 
of the Government and the constitutional doc- 
trines which they had laid down in regard to it, 
and then severely condemned the conduct of the 
Premier for being so heedless of the censure of 
the House of Lords and in trying to shield him- 
self behind the precedents which are in reality 



The Neapolitan Prisons 267 

no precedents at all. With reference to tHe 
Greek question, lie repudiated precedents wliicli 
involved tlie conduct of strong countries against 
weak ones. The Greek Government had put no 
impediment in the way of arbitration. Instead 
of trusting and trying the tribunals of the 
country and employing diplomatic agency sim- 
ply as a supplemental resource, Lord Palmers- 
ton had interspersed authority of foreign power, 
in contravention both of the particular stipula- 
tions of the treaty in force between Greece and 
England and of the general principles of the 
law of nations. He had thus set the mischievous 
example of abandoning the methods of law and 
order, and resorted to those of force. Non-inter- 
ference had been laid down as the basis of 
our conduct towards other nations, but the policy 
of Lord Palmerston had been characterized by a 
spirit of active interference. 

Mr. Gladstone's words were in part as 
follows: "Does he [Lord Palmerston] make 
the claim for us [the English] that we are to be 
lifted upon a platform high above the standing- 
ground of all other nations? * * * Jt is 
indeed too clear * * * that he adopts, in 
part, the vain conception that we, forsooth, have 
a mission to be the censors of vice and folly, of 
abuse and imperfection among the other coun- 
tries of the world ; that we are to be the univer- 
sal schoolmasters, and that all those who hesitate 



268 William E. Gladstone 

to recognize our office can be governed only by 
prejudice or personal animosity, and shall have 
the blind war of diplomacy forthwith, declared 
against them." 

Again : ''Let us recognize, and recognize 
with frankness, the equality of the weak with 
the strong ; the principles of brotherhood among 
nations, and of their sacred independence. 
When we are asking for the maintenance of the 
rights which belong to our fellow-subjects, resi- 
dent in Greece, let us do as we would be done 
by, and let us pay all respect to a feeble State 
and to the infancy of free institutions. * * * 
Let us refrain from all gratuitous and arbitrary 
meddling in the internal concerns of other States, 
even as we should resent the same interference 
if it were attempted to be practiced toward 
ourselves." 

In this address Mr. Gladstone evinces his 
inclination to appeal to the higher and nobler 
nature of man, to the principles of brotherhood 
among nations, to the law of God and nature, 
and to ask as a test of the foreign policy of the 
government, not whether it is striking, or bril- 
liant, or successful, but whether it is right. 

This speech of Mr. Gladstone's was recog- 
nized as the finest he had delivered in Parlia- 
ment, and its power was acknowledged by both 
sides of the House, by political opponent and 
friend. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, then a 



The Neapolitan Prisons 269 

member of tHe House, referring in a speech tlie 
following evening to Mr. Gladstone and his 
remarkable speech, uttered these words : ''I 
suppose we are now to consider him as the 
representative of Lord Stanley in the House — 
Gladstone Vice Disraeli, am I to say, resigned or 
superseded " ? The government was sustained. 

We have already stated that it was during 
this memorable debate that Sir Robert Peel 
made his last speech. On the following day, 
29th of June, 1850, Sir Robert called at Bucking- 
ham Palace for the purpose of leaving his card. 
On proceeding up Constitution Hill on horse 
back he met one of Lady Dover's daughters, and 
exchanged salutations. Immediately afterwards 
his horse became restive and shying towards the 
rails of the Green Park, threw Sir Robert side- 
ways on his left shoulder. Medical aid was at 
hand and was at once administered. Sir Robert 
groaned when lifted and when asked whether he 
was much hurt replied, ^^ Yes, very much." He 
was conveyed home where the meeting with his 
family was very affecting, and he swooned in the 
arms of his physician. He was placed upon a 
sofa in the dining-room from which he never 
moved. His sufferings were so acute that a 
minute examination of his injuries could not be 
made. For two or three days he lingered and 
then died, July 2d. An examination made after 
death revealed the fact that the fifth rib on the 



270 William E. Gladstone 

left side was fractured, the broken rib pressing 
on tbe lung, producing effusion and pulmonary 
engorgement. Tbis was probably tbe seat of tbe 
mortal injury, and was where Sir Robert com- 
plained of the greatest pain. 

The news of Sir Robert's death produced a 
profound sensation throughout the l^nd. Great 
and universal were the tokens of respect and 
grief. There was but one feeling, — that England 
had lost one of her most illustrious statesmen. 
Even those who had been in opposition to his 
views, alluded to the great loss the nation had 
sustained and paid a . fitting tribute to his 
memory. The House of Commons, on motion of 
Mr. Hume' July 3d, at once adjournedo In the 
House of Lords the Duke of Wellington and 
Lord Brougham spoke in appreciative words of 
the departed statesman. ^' Such was the leader 
whom Mr. Gladstone had faithfully followed for 
many years." 

Supporting Mr. Hume's motion, Mr. Glad- 
stone said: "I am quite sure that every heart 
is much too full to allow us, at a period so early, 
to enter upon a consideration of the amount of 
that calamity with which the country has been 
visited in his, I must even now say, premature 
death ; for though he has died full of years and 
full of honors, yet it is a death which our human 
eyes will regard as premature ; because we had 
fondly hoped that, in whatever position he was 



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The Neapolitan Prisons 273 

placed, by the weight of His ciiaracter, by tbe 
splendor of bis talents, b^^ the purity of his 
virtues, he would still have been spared to render 
to his countrymen the most essential services. 
I will only, sir, quote those most touching and 
feeling lines which were applied by one of the 
greatest poets of this country to the memory of 
a man great indeed, but yet not greater than 
Sir Robert Peel : 

' Now is tlie stately column broke, 
The beacon ligbt is quenched in smoke ; 
The trumpet's silver voice is still ; 
The warder silent on the hill.' 

" Sir, I will add no more — in saying this I 
have, perhaps, said too much. It might have 
been better had I confined myself to seconding 
the motion. I am sure the tribute of respect 
which we now offer will be all the more valuable 
from the silence with which the motion is 
received, and which I well know has not arisen 
from the want, but from the excess of feeling 
on the part of members of this House." 

Upon the death of Sir Robert Peel began 
the disintegration of the party distinguished by 
his name — Peelites. Some of its members 
united with the Conservatives, and others, such 
as Sir James Graham, Sidney Herbert, and 
Mr. Gladstone held themselves aloof from both 
Whigs and Tories. Conservative traditions still 
exercised considerable influence over them, but 



274 William E. Gladstone 

iiliey could not join them, because they were 
already surrendering to strong liberal tendencies. 
It is said that Mr. Gladstone at this time, and for 
a decade thereafter, until the death of Sir James 
Graham, was greatly indebted to this statesman, 
not only for the growth of his liberal principles, 
but for his development as a practical statesman. 
Sir James wielded great influence over his 
contemporaries generally, because of his great 
knowledge of Parliamentary tactics, and the fact 
that he was the best educated and most thorough- 
ly accomplished statesman of his age. '^ If he 
could be prevailed upon to speak in the course 
of a great debate, his speech was worth fifty 
votes," so great was his influence and power. 
*' However great may have been the indebtedness 
of Mr. Gladstone to Sir James Graham, if the 
former had not been possessed of far wider 
sympathies — to say nothing of superior special 
intellectual qualities — than his political mentor, 
he never could have conceived and executed 
those important legislative acts for which his 
name will now chiefly be remembered." 

The other case occupying the attention of 
Parliament, to which we have alluded, we must 
now consider — Mr. Gladstone and the prisons of 
Naples. Owing to the illness of one of his 
children, for whom a southern climate was 
recommended, Mr. Gladstone spent several 
months of the Winter of 1 850-1 in Naples. 



The Neapolitan Prisons 275 

His brief visit to this city on a purely domestic 
mission was destined to assume an international 
importance. It came to his knowledge tliat a 
large number of the citizens of Naples, wbo bad 
been members of the Chamber of Deputies, an 
actual majority of the representatives of the 
people, had been exiled or imprisoned by King 
Ferdinand, because they formed the opposition 
party to the government, and that between 
twenty and thirty thousand of that monarches 
subjects had been cast into prison on the charge 
of political disaffection. The sympathies of Mr. 
Gladstone were at once enlisted in behalf of the 
oppressed Neapolitans. At first Mr. Gladstone 
looked at the matter only from a humanitarian 
and not from a political aspect, and it was only 
upon the former ground that he felt called and 
impelled to attempt the redress of the w/rngs 
which were a scandal to the name of civilf /Ration 
in Europe. And it was not long before Eugland 
and the Continent were aroused by his denunci- 
ations of the Neapolitan system of government. 
Mr. Gladstone first carefully ascertained 
the truth of the statements made to him in 
order to attest their accuracy, and then published 
two letters on the subject addressed to the Earl 
of Aberdeen. These letters were soon followed 
by a third. In the first of these letters, dated 
April 7, 135 1, he brings an elaborate, detailed and 
horrible indictment against the rulers of Naples^ 



276 WILLIAM E. Gladstone 

especially as regards their prisons and tlie treat- 
ment of persons confined in tliem for political 
offenses. He disclaimed any tHonglit of having 
gone to Naples for the purpose of political 
criticism or censorship, to look for defects in the 
administration of the government, or to hear the 
grievances of the people, or to propagate ideas 
belonging to another country. But after a 
residence of three or four months in their city 
he had retured home with a deep feeling of the 
duty upon him to make some endeavor to 
mitigate the horrors in the midst of which the 
government of Naples was carried on. 

There were chiefly three reasons that led 
him to adopt the present course: ^' First, that 
the present practices of the Government of 
Naples, in reference to real or supposed political 
offenders, are an outrage upon religion, upon 
civilization, upon humanity and upon decency. 
Secondly, that these practices are certainly, and 
even rapidly, doing the work of Republicanism 
in that country — a political creed which has 
little natural or habitual root in the character of 
the people. Thirdly, that as a member of the 
Conservative party in one of the great family of 
European nations, I am compelled to remember 
that party stands in virtual and real, though 
perhaps unconscious alliance with all the 
established Governments of Europe as such ; 
and that, according to the measure of its 



The Neapolitan Prisons ^77 

influence, tHey suffer more or less of moral 
detriment from its reverses, and derive strength 
and encouragement from its successes." 

He passed over the consideration of the all 
important question whether the actual Govern- 
ment of the Two Sicilies was one with or without 
a title, one of law or one of force, and came to 
the real question at issue. His charge against 
the Neapolitan Government was not one of mere 
imperfection, not corruption in low quarters, 
not occasional severity, but that of incessant, 
systematic, deliberate violation of the law by the 
power appointed to watch over and maintain it. 

Mr. Gladstone, with impassionate language, 
thus formulates his fearful indictment : ''It is 
such violation of human and written law as this, 
carried on for the purpose of violating every 
other law, unwritten and eternal, human and 
divine ; it is the wholesale persecution of virtue, 
when united with intelligence, operating upon 
such a scale that entire classes may with truth 
be said to be its object, so that the Government 
is in bitter and cruel, as well as utterly illegal 
hostility to whatever in the nation really lives 
and moves, and forms the mainspring of practi- 
cal progress and improvement ; it is the awful 
profanation of public religion, by its notorious 
alliance in the governing powers with the viola- 
tion of every moral rule under the stimulants of 
fear and vengeance ; it is the perfect prostitution 



2/8 William E. Gladstone 

of the judicial office wliicli lias made it, under 
veils only too threadbare and transparent, tlie 
degraded recipient of tlie vilest and clumsiest 
forgeries, got up wilfully and deliberately, by 
the immediate advisers of tbe Crown, for tlie 
purpose of destroying tbe peace, the freedom, 
aye, and even, if not by capital sentences, the 
life of men among the most virtuous, upright, 
intelligent, distinguished and refined of the 
whole community ; it is the savage and cowardly 
system of moral as well as in a lower degree of 
physical torture, through which the sentences 
obtained from the debased courts of justice are 
carried into effect. 

" The effect of all this is a total inversion 
of all the moral and social ideas. Law, instead: 
of being respected, is odious. Force and not 
affection is the foundation of government. 
There is no association, but a violent antagonism 
between the idea of freedom and that of order. 
The governing power, which teaches of itself 
that it is the image of God upon earth, is 
clothed in the view of the overwhelming major- 
ity of the thinking public with all the vices for 
its attributes. I have seen and heard the strong 
expression used, 'This is the negation of God 
erected into a system of Government.' '\ 

It was not merely the large numbers 
imprisoned unjustly, to which public atten- 
tion was directed, that called for righteous 



The Neapolitan Prisons 279 

indignation and made Mr. Gladstone's words 
create sncli a sensation in Enrope, bnt tlie 
mode of procedure was arbitrary in tlie extreme. 
THe law of Naples required that personal liberty 
sliould be inviolable, except under warrant from 
a court of justice. Yet in utter disregard of 
tbis law the authorities watched the people, paid 
domiciliary visits, ransacked houses, seized 
papers and effects, and tore up floors at pleasure 
under pretense of searching for arms, imprisoned 
men by the score, by the hundred, by the thou- 
sand without any warrant whatever, sometimes 
without even any written authority whatever, or 
anything beyond the word of a policeman, con- 
stantly without any statement whatever of the 
nature of the offense. Charges were fabricated 
to get rid of inconvenient persons. Perjury and 
forgery were resorted to in order to establish 
charges, and the whole mode of conducting trials 
was a burlesque of justice. 

He thus describes the dungeons of Naples, 
in which some of the prisoners were confined for 
their political opinions: ''The prisons of 
Naples, as is well known, are another name 
for the extreme of filth and horror. I have really 
seen something of them, but not the worst. 
This I have seen, my Lord: the official doctors 
not going to the sick prisoners, but the sick 
prisoners, men almost with death on their faces, 
toiling up stairs to them at that charnel-house of 



28o William E. Gladstone 

tHe Vicaria, because the lower regions of such a 
palace of darkness are too foul and loathsome to 
allow it to be expected that professional men 
should consent to earn bread by entering them." 
Of some of those sufferers Mr. Gladstone speaks 
particularly. He names Pironte, formerly a 
judge. Baron Porcari, and Carlo Poerio, a distin- 
guished patriot. The latter he specially speaks 
of as a refined and accomplished gentleman, a 
copious and elegant speaker, a respected and 
blameless character, yet he had been arrested and 
condemned for treason. Mr. Gladstone says: 
*' The condemnation of such a man for treason is 
a proceeding j ust as conformable to the laws of 
truth, justice, decency, and fair play, and to the 
common sense of the community — in fact, just 
as great and gross an outrage on them all — as 
would be a like condemnation in this country of 
any of our best known public men — Lord John 
Russell, or Lord Lansdowne, or Sir James 
Graham, or yourself." 

There was no name dearer to Englishmen 
than that of Poerio to his Neapolitan fellow- 
countrymen. Poerio was tried and condemned 
on the sole accusation of a worthless character 
named Jerrolino. He would have been acquitted 
nevertheless, by a division of four to five of his 
judges, had not Navarro (who sat as a judge 
while directly concerned in the charge against the 
prisoner), by the distinct use of intimidation, 



The Neapolitan Prisons 281 

procured the number necessary for a sentence. 
A statement is furnished on the authority of an 
eye-witness, as to the inhumanity with which 
invalid prisoners were treated by the Grand 
Criminal Court of Naples ; and Mr. Gladstone 
minutely describes the manner of the impris- 
onment of Poerio and six of his incarcerated 
associates. Each prisoner bore a weight of chain 
amounting to thirty-two pounds and for no pur- 
pose whatever were these chains undone. All 
the prisoners were confined, night and day, in a 
small room, which may be described as amongst 
the closest of dungeons ; but Poerio was after 
this condemned to a still lower depth of calamity 
and suffering. "Never before have I con- 
versed," says Mr. Gladstone, speaking of Poerio, 
"and never probably shall I converse again, 
with a cultivated and accomplished gentleman, 
of whose innocence, obedience to law, and love 
of his country, I was as firmly and as rationally 
assured as your lordship's or that of any other 
man ,of the very highest character, whilst he 
stood before me, amidst surrounding felons, and 
clad in the vile uniform of guilt and shame." 
But he is noM^ gone where he will scarcely have 
the opportunity even of such conversation. I 
cannot honestly suppress my conviction that 
the object in the case of Poerio, as a man of 
mental power suf&cient to be feared, is to obtain 
the scaffold's aim by means more cruel than 



282 William E. Gladstone 

the scaffold, and without the outcry which the 
scaffold would create.'^ 

Mr. Gladstone said that it was time for the 
\reil to be lifted from scenes more fit for hell 
than earth, or that some considerable mitigation 
should be voluntarily adopted. This letter was 
published in 185 1 — the year of the great Expo- 
sition in London — and a copy was sent to the 
representative of the Queen in every court of 
Europe. Its publication caused a wide-spread 
indignation in England, a great sensation 
abroad, and profoundly agitated the court 
of Naples. 

In the English Parliament Sir DeLacy 
E^ans put the following question to the Foreign 
Secretary : ''If the British Minister at the 
court of Naples had been instructed to employ 
his good ofiices in the cause of humanity, for 
the diminution of these lamentable severities, 
and with what result ? " In reply to this ques- 
tion Lord Palmerston accepted and adopted 
Mr. Gladstone's statement, which had been 
confirmed from other quarters, expressing keen 
sympathy and humanitarian feeling with the 
cause which he had espoused, but Lord Palmers- 
ton pointed out that it was impossible to do 
anything in a matter which related entirely to 
the domestic affairs of the Government at Naples. 
He said : '' Instead of confining himself to those 
amusements that abound in Naples, instead of 



THE NEAPOLITAN PRISONS 283 

diving into volcanoes, and exploring excavated 
cities, we see him going into courts of justice, 
visiting prisons, descending into dungeons, and 
examining great numbers of tlie cases ^ of 
unfortunate victims of illegality and injustice, 
with the view afterwards to enlist public opinion 
in the endeavor to remedy those abuses." This 
announcement by the Foreign Secretary was 
warmly applauded by the House. '' A few days 
. afterwards Lord Palmerston was requested by 
Prince Castelcicala to forward the reply of the 
Neapolitan Government to the different Euro- 
pean courts to which Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet 
had been sent. His lordship, with his wonted 
courage and independent spirit, replied that he 
' must decline being accessory to the circulation 
of a pamphlet which, in my opinion, does no 
credit to its writer, or the Government which he 
defends, or to the political party of which he 
professes to be the champion.' He also in- 
formed the Prince that information received from 
other sources led him to the conclusion that 
Mr. Gladstone had by no means overstated the 
various evils which he had described ; and he 
[Lord Palmerston] regretted that the Neapolitan 
Government had not set to work earnestly and 
effectually to correct the manifold and grave 
abuses which clearly existed." 

The second paper of Mr. Gladstone upon 
the same subject was a sequel to the first. His 



284 William E. Gladstone 

wisH was ttiat everything possible should be done 
first in the way of private representation and 
remonstrance, and be did not regret tbe course 
he had taken, though it entailed devious delays. 
In answer to the natural inquiry why he should 
simply appear in his personal capacity through 
the press, instead of inviting to the grave and 
painful question the attention of the House of 
Commons, of which he was a member, he said, 
that he had advisedly abstained from mixing up 
his statements with any British agency or 
influences which were official, diplomatic, or 
political. The claims and interests which he 
had in view were either wholly null and value- 
less, or they were broad as the extension of the 
human race and long-lived as its duration. 

As to his general charges he had nothing 
to retract. His representations had not been 
too strongly stated, for the most disgraceful 
circumstances were those which rested upon 
public notoriety, or upon his own personal knowl- 
edge. It had been stated that he had overesti- 
mated the number of prisoners, and he would 
give the Neapolitan Government the full benefit 
of any correction. But the number of political 
prisoners in itself^ was a secondary feature 
of the case, for ''if they were fairly and legally 
arrested, fairly and legally treated before trial — 
fairly and legally tried, that was the main 
matter." For the honor of human nature men 



The Neapolitan Prisons 285 

would at first receive some statements with in- 
credulity. Men ought to be slow k) believe vhat 
such things could happen, and happen in ;»■ 
Christian country, the seat of almost the oldest 
European civilization." But those thus disposed 
in the begining he hoped would not close their 
minds to the reception of the truth, however 
painful to believe. The general probability of his 
statements could not, unfortunately be gainsaid. 

Many replies were made to Mr. Gladstone's 
pamphlet that were violent and abusive. They 
appeared not only in Naples, Turin, and Paris, 
but even in London. 

All these answers, were in truth no replies 
at all, for they did not disprove the facts. 
These professed corrections of Mr. Gladstone's 
statements did not touch the real basis of the 
question. It was necessary to say something if 
possible by way of defense, or justice, which had 
as yet not been done. 

There was one reply that was put forth that 
Mr. Gladstone felt demanded some attention, 
namely, the of&cial answer of the Neapolitan 
Government to his charges. To this he replied 
in a letter, in 1852. In his reply he placed, point 
by point, the answers in the scales along with his 
own accusations. There was in the Neapolitan 
answers to the letters really a tacit admission of 
the accuracy of nine-tenths of Mr. Gladstone's 
statements. Mr. Gladstone enumerated the fev/ 



286 William E. Gladstone 

retractions whicli he liad to make, wliicli were 
five in number. That the prisoner, Settembrine, 
had not been tortured and confined to double 
chains for life, as was currently reported and 
believed; that six judges had been dismissed 
at Reggio upon presuming to acquit a batch of 
political prisoners, required modify in-g to three ; 
that seventeen invalids had not been massacred 
in the prison of Procida during a revolt, as stated ; 
and that certain prisoners alleged to have been 
still incarcerated after acquittal had been released 
after the lapse of two days. These were all the 
modifications he had to make in his previous 
statements. And as to the long list of his grave 
accusations, not one of them rested upon hearsay. 
He pointed out how small and insignificant a 
fraction of error had found its way into his 
papers. He fearlessly reasserted that agonizing 
corporal punishment was inflicted by the ofiicials 
in Neapolitan prisons, and that without judicial 
authority. As to Settembrine, the political 
prisoner named, he was incarcerated in a small 
room with eight other prisoners, one of whom 
boasted that he had murdered, at various times, 
thirty-five persons. Several of his victims had 
been his prison companions, and "the murders 
of this Ergastolo " had exceeded fifty in a single 
year. It was true that at the massacre at Procida 
the sick had not been slain in the prisons, yet 
prisoners who hid under beds were dragged forth 



The Neapolitan Prisons 287 

and shot In cold blood by the soldiery after 
order had been restored. The work of slaughter 
had been twice renewed, and two officers received 
promotion or honors for that abominable enormity. 
^ Mr. Gladstone found in the reply of the 
Government of Naples no reason to retract his 
damaging statements in reference to Neapolitan 
inhumanity, on the other hand he discovered 
grounds for emphasizing his accusations. And 
as to his statement regarding the number of 
the sufferers from Neapolitan injustice and 
cruelty, he defended at length his statement as 
to-the enormous number of the prisoners. 

It was clear to all candid minds that all the 
replies had failed to prove him wrong in any of 
his substantial changes, which retained their 
full force. "The arrow has shot deep into the 
mark," observed Mr. Gladstone, '' and cannot be 
dislodged. But I have sought, in once more 
entering the field, not only to sum up the state 
of the facts in the manner nearest to exactitude, 
but likewise to close the case as I began it, pre- 
senting it from first to last in the light of a mat- 
ter which is not primarily or mainly political, 
which is better kept apart from Parliamentary 
discussion, which has no connection whatever with 
any peculiar idea or separate object or interest 
of England, but which appertains to the sphere 
of humanity at large, and well deserves the 
consideration of every man who feels a concern 



288 William E. Gladstone 

for tHe well-being of his race, in its bearings on 
that well-being; on the elementary demands 
of individual domestic happiness ; on the perma- 
nent maintenance of public order ; on .the 
stability of thrones ; on the solution of that 
great problem, which, day and night, in its 
innumerable forms must haunt the reflections of 
every statesman, both here and elsewhere, how 
to harmonize the old with the new conditions of 
society, and to mitigate the increasing stress of 
time and change upon what remains of this 
ancient and venerable fabric of the traditional 
civilization of Europe." 

Mr. Gladstone also said, that the question 
had been asked, whether a government "could 
be induced to change its policy, because some 
individual or other had by lying accusations 
held it up to the hatred of mankind," yet he had 
the satisfaction of knowing that upon the 
challenge of a mere individual, the government 
of Naples had been compelled to plead before 
the tribunal of general opinion, and to admit the 
jurisdiction of that tribunal. It was to public 
sentiment that the Neapolitan Government was 
paying deference when it resolved on the manly 
course of a judicial reply; and he hoped that 
further deference would be paid to that public 
sentiment in the complete reform of its depart- 
ments and the whole future management of 
its affairs. 



The Neapolitan Prisons 2ji 

After a consideration of tlie political 
position of tlie tlirone of the Two Sicilies, in 
connection witli its dominions on tlie mainland, 
Mr. Gladstone tlins concluded his examination 
of the official reply of the Neapolitan Govern- 
ment : "These pages have been written in the 
hope that, by thus making, through the press, 
rather than in another mode, that rejoinder to 
the Neapolitan reply which was doubtless due 
from me, I might still, as far as depended on 
me, keep the question on its true ground, as one 
not of politics but of morality, and not of England 
but of Christendom and of mankind. Again I 
express the hope that this may be my closing 
word.- I express the hope that it may not be- 
come a hard necessity to keep this controversy 
alive until it reaches its one only possible issue, 
which no power of man can permanently inter- 
cept. I express the hope that while there is 
time, while there is quiet, while dignity may yet 
be saved in showing mercy, and in the blessed 
work of restoring Justice to her seat, the Gov- 
ernment of Naples may set its hand in earnest to 
the workof real and searching, however quiet and 
unostentatious, reform ; that it may not become 
unavoidable to reiterate these appeals from the 
hand of power to the one common heart of man- 
kind; to produce these painful documents, those 
harrowing descriptions, which might be supplied 
in rank abundance, of which I have scarcely 



292 William E. Gladstone 

given the faintest idea or sketcli, and whicli, if 
laid from time to time before the world, would 
bear down like a deluge every effort at apology or 
palliation, and would cause all that has recently 
been made known to be forgotten and eclipsed in 
deeper horrors yet ; lest the strength of offended 
and indignant humanity should rise up as a 
giant refreshed with wine, and, while sweeping 
away these abominations from the eye of Heaven, 
should sweep away along with them things pure 
and honest, ancient, venerable, salutary to man- 
kind, crowned with the glories of the past and 
still capable of bearing future fruit." 

The original purpose of these letters, though 
at first not gained, was unmistakable in the 
subsequent revolution which created a regen- 
erated, free and united Italy. The moral in- 
fluence of such an exposure was incalculable and 
eventually irresistible. The great Italian patriot 
and liberator of Italy, General Garibaldi, was 
known to say that Mr. Gladstone's protest 
'^ sounded the first trumpet call of Italian liberty." 
If France and England had unitedly protested 
against the Neapolitan abuse of powder and 
violation of law, such a protest would have been 
heard and redress granted, but such joint action 
was not taken. The letters reached the four- 
teenth edition and in this edition Mr. Gladstone 
said that by a royal decree, issued December 27, 
1858, ninety-one political prisoners had their 



The Neapolitan Prisons 293 

punishment commuted into perpetual exile from 
the kingdom of the two Sicilies, but that a 
Ministerial order of January 9, 1859, directed 
that they should be conveyed to America ; that 
of these ninety-one persons no less than fourteen 
had died long before in dungeons, and that only 
sixty-six of them embarked January 16, 1859, 
and were taken to Cadiz, where they were 
shipped on board an American sailing vessel, 
which was to have carried them to New York, 
but eventually landed them at Cork. '' Eleven 
men were kept behind, either because it was 
afterwards thought advisable not to release them, 
as in the case of Longo and Belli Franci, two 
artillery officers, who were still in the dungeons 
of Gaeta. Whenever the prisoners were too 
sick to be moved, aS was the case with Pironti, 
who was paralytic; or because they were in 
some provincial dungeons too remote from 
Naples." Such was the fate of some of the 
patriots officially liberated by Ferdinand's suc- 
cessor, Francis II. 

The charges of Mr. Gladstone against the 
Neapolitan Government met with confirmation 
from another source nearer home. In 1851 
Mr. Gladstone translated and published Farini's 
important and bulky work, entitled, " The Roman 
State, from 1815 to 1850." The author, Farini, 
addressed a note to his translator, in which he 



294 William E. Gladstone 

said that lie had dedicated the concluding vol- 
ume of his work to Mr. Gladstone, "who, by his 
love of Italian letters, and by his deeds of Italian 
charity, had established a relationship with 
Italy in the spirit of those great Italian writers 
who had been their masters in eloquence, in 
civil philosophy and in national virtue, from 
Dante and Macchiv^lli down to Alfieri and 
Gioberti. Signor Farini endorsed the charges 
made by Mr. Gladstone against the Neapolitan 
Government. He wrote: "The scandalous 
trials for high treason still continue at Naples ; 
accusers, examiners, judges, false witnesses, all 
are bought ; the prisons, those tombs of the 
living, are full ; two thousand citizens of all 
ranks and conditions are already condemned to 
the dungeons, as many to confinement, double 
that number to exile ; the majority guilty of no 
crime but that of having believed in the oaths 
made by Ferdinand II. But, in truth, nothing 
more was needed to press home the indictment." 
At the period of Mr. Gladstone's visit to 
Naples there was a growing sentiment through- 
out Italy for Italian independence and union. 
The infamous measures adopted by the King of 
Naples to repress in his own dominions every 
aspiration after freedom, only succeeded in 
making the people more determined and the 
liberty for which they sighed surer in the end. 
His sytem of misgovernment went on for a few 



The Neapolitan Prisons 295 

years longer and was the promoting cause of 
the revolutionary movements which continually 
disturbed the whole Italian peninsula. A 
conference was held in Paris upon the Italian 
question, which failed to accomplish anything, 
against which failure Count Cavour addressed a 
protest to the French and British Governments 
in April, 1856. Afterwards the King of Naples 
and his Ministers were remonstrated with, but 
this was of no avail, only drawing forth an 
assertion that the sovereign had the right to 
deal with his own subjects as he pleased. France 
and England finally withdrew their representa- 
tives from Naples, and the storm soon after- 
wards broke. The brilliant success of Garibaldi 
in i860 filled Francis II with terror. He was 
now, like all evil men, ready to make the most 
lavish promises of liberal reform to escape the 
consequences of his misdeeds. However, his 
repentance came too late. The victorious Gari- 
baldi issued a decree ultimately, stating that the 
Two Sicilies, which had been redeemed by Italian 
blood, and which had freely elected him their 
dictator, formed an integral part of one and 
indivisable Italy, under the constitutional King 
Victor Emmanuel and his descendants. Francis 
II was dethroned and expelled from his kingdom 
by the legitimate fruits of his own hateful policy 
and that of his predecessor. " Count Cavour 
was the brain as Garibaldi was the hand of that 



296 



William E. Gladstone 



miglity movement wliicli resulted in tHe unity 
of Italy," says an Englisli writer, " but as 
Englislimen we may take pride in the fact tHat 
not tHe least among the precipitating causes of 
this movement was the fearless exposure by 
Mr. Gladstone of the cruelties and tyrannies of 
the Neapolitan Government." 




Gladstone Visiting Neapolitan Prisons. 



CHAPTER IX 
The First Budget 

>^^HE precise date atwhich Mr. Gladstone 
W J became a Liberal cannot be determined, 
^^r but during the Parliamentary sessions 

of 185 1 and 1852 lie became finally 
alienated from tbe Conservative party, 
although he did not enter the ranks of the 
Liberals for some years afterward. He himself 
stated that so late as 1 85 1 he had not formally 
left the Tory party, nevertheless his advance 
towards Liberalism is very pronounced at this 
period. It is well for us to trace the important 
events of these two sessions, for they also lead up 
to the brilliant financial measures of 1853, which 
caused Mr. Gladstone's name to be classed with 
those of Pitt and Peel. Mr Gladstone's trusted 
leader was dead, and he was gradually coming 
forward to take the place in debate of the fallen 
statesman. 

When Mr. Gladstone returned home from 
Italy he found England convulsed over renewed 



298 William E. Gladstone 

papal aggressions. The Pope had, in the pre- 
ceding September, issued Letters Apostolic, 
establishing a Roman Catholic Hierarchy in 
England, and in which he had mapped out the 
whole country into papal dioceses. This act of 
aggression produced a storm of public indignation. 
It was regarded by the people generally as an 
attempt to wrest from them their liberties and 
enslave them. It was looked upon by the Protes- 
tants indignantly as an attack upon the Reformed 
Faith. Anglicans resented it as an act which 
practically denied the jurisdiction and authority 
of the Church of England, established already 
by law. Englishmen, faithfully devoted to the 
British Constitution, which guaranteed the 
Protestant Religion, were incensed by this inter- 
ference with the prerogative of the Crown ; while 
all ardent patriots were influenced by the un- 
warranted and unsolicited interference of a for- 
eign potentate. Every element of combustion 
being present, meetings were held everywhere, 
inflammatory speeches were made on every 
public occasion, and patriotic resolutions were 
passed. Pulpit and platform rang with repeated 
cries of "No Popery," and echoed at the Lord 
Mayor's banquet, at the Guildhall, and even at 
Covent Garden Theatre in Shakesperian strains. 
The Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, pub- 
lished his famous Durham letter, addressed to 
the Bishop of Durham, rebuking and defying 



The First Budget 299 

the Pope, and charging the whole High Church 
Party of the Church of England with being the 
secret allies and fellow-workers of Rome. 

In the beginning of the Parliamentary session 
of 185 1 Lord John Russell moved for permission 
to bring in a bill to counteract the aggressive 
policy of the Church of Rome, on account of 
which aggression of the Pope the whole country 
was well-nigh in a condition of panic. The 
measure was debated for four days, and was 
entitled the Ecclesiastical Faiths Bill. It was 
designed to prevent the assumption by Roman 
Catholic prelates of titles taken from any territory 
or place in England. Severe penalties were 
attached to the use of such titles, and all acts 
done by, and requests made to, persons under 
them were to be void. The bill was not well 
received by some, being thought, on one side too 
mild and on the other as too stringent. Mr. 
Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone both opposed it ; the 
latter because the change was wanted by English 
Catholics rather than by the Vatican. He con- 
demned the vanity and boastful spirit of the 
papal documents, but contended that his fellow 
Catholic countrymen should not suffer for that. 
The difaculty of applying it to Ireland, where the 
system objected to already existed, was pointed 
out. However the preliminary motion was 
passed by 395 votes against 63, "this enormous 
majority," says an English author, " attesting the 



v'oo William E. Gladstone 

wide-spread fear of Romisli macliinations." The 
measure became a law, but it was a dead letter, 
and was quietly repealed twenty years afterwards 
at Mr. Gladstone's request. 

Before, however, the bill was passed a minis- 
terial crisis had intervened. During this session 
other dif&culties were encountered b}^ the Minis- 
try. The financial as well- as this ecclesiastical 
question was a problem. The Conservatives 
were strong and compact, and enjoyed the adhe- 
sion of the Peelites, while the Ministerial party 
was to a great extent demoralized, Mr. Disraeli, 
owing to the deep distress that prevailed in the 
agricultural districts, renewed his motion upon 
the burdens on land and the inequalities of tax- 
ation, and consequently he presented a resolution 
that it was the duty of the government to intro- 
duce measures for the alleviation of the distress 
without delay. The government admitted the 
distress, but denied that it was increasing. They 
attempted to prove that pauperism had decreased 
in all parts of the kingdom — England, Ireland 
and Scotland. Commerce was in a most prosper- 
ous condition, while the revenues had reached 
the unexampled amount of $350,000,000. "Sir 
James Graham stigmatized the motion as an 
attempt to turn out the administration, to dissolve 
Parliament, and to return to Protection." The 
Ministry was sustained by a small majority, 
and was successful in some measures, but soon 



The -First Budget 301 



suffered several minor defeats and finally was 
forced to retire. 

One of the successful measures was tliat 
introduced by Mr. LocHe King, and opposed by 
Lord John Russell, for assimilating the country 
franchise to t/hat of the boroughs. The budget 
of the government introduced January 17th was 
unpopular. It demanded a renewed lease for 
three years of the obnoxious income-tax, but 
promised a partial remission of the window duties, 
which was a tax upon every window in a house, 
together with some relief to the agriculturists. 
The first budget having been rejected a second 
financial statement was offered later in the ses- 
sion. It imposed a house-tax, withdrew the 
bonus to agriculturists, repealed the window-tax, 
but re-demanded the income-tax for three years. 
The main features of the budget were acceptable 
to the House, but the Government suffered defeat 
on minor financial questions, which tendered still 
further to diminish the popularity of the ministry. 

Upon the resignation of Lord Joh^ Russell, 
and his Cabinet, in February, 185 1, Lord Stanley 
was called upon to form a new administration, 
and Mr. Gladstone was invited to become a mem- 
ber of the Cabinet. Lord Stanley having failed, 
Lord Aberdeen was invited to form a new Cabinet, 
by the Queen, with like results. Both these 
gentlemen having declined the task of forming a 
new administration, Lord John Russell and his 



302 William E. Gladstone 

colleagues resumed office, but tlie reconstructed 
ministry was soon to receive a fatal blow through 
Lord Palmerston, the foreign Secretary. 

On the 2d of December, 1851, Louis Napo- 
leon, Prince President of the French Republic, 
by a single act of lawless violence, abolished the 
constitution, and made himself Dictator. The 
details of this monstrous deed, and of the blood- 
shed that accompanied it, created a profound 
sensation in England. The Queen was very 
anxious that no step should be taken and no 
word said by her ministry which could be con- 
strued into an approval by the English govern- 
ment of what had been done. Indeed the Queen 
who knew the failing of her Foreign Secretary 
to act hastily in important matters of State with- 
out the consent or advice of Queen or Cabinet, 
questioned the Premier and was assured that 
nothing had been done in recognition of the new 
government in Paris. Indeed the Cabinet had 
passed a resolution to abstain from the expres- 
sion of opinions in approval or disapproval of the 
recent coup d^etat in France. But it soon leaked 
out that Lord Palmerston who thought he under- 
stood full well the foreign relations of England, 
and what her policy should be, had both in public 
dispatches and private conversation spoken favor- 
ably of the policy adopted by Louis Napoleon. 
He had even expressed to Count Walewski, 
the French Ambassador in LondoUj, his entire; 



The First Budget 303 

approval of the Prince President's act. This was 
too much for the Queen, who had as early as the 
August before, in a memorandum sent to the 
Premier, imperatively protested against the crown's 
being ignored by the Foreign Secretary, so Lord 
Palmerston was dismissed from office by Lord 
John Russell, Christmas Eve, 185 1. He bore 
his discharge with meekness, and even omitted in 
Parliament to defend himself in points where he 
was wronged. But Justin McCarthy says : 
'' Lord Palmerston was in the wrong in many if 
not most of the controversies which had preceded 
it ; that is to say, he was wrong in committing 
England as he so often did to measures which 
had not the approval of the sovereign or his 
colleagues." 

In February following, 1852, Lord Palmers- 
ton enjoyed, as he expressed it, his " tit-for-tat 
with Johnny Russell " and helped the Tories to 
defeat his late chief in a measure for reorganizing 
the militia as a precaution against possible aggres- 
sion from France. The ministry had not saved 
itself by the overthrow of Lord Palmerston. 

Upon the retirement of Lord John Russell 
from office, in 1852, the Earl of Derby, formerly 
Lord Stanley, succeded him as Prime Minister. 
Mr. Gladstone was invited to become a member of 
the new Tory Cabinet, but declined, whereupon 
Lord Malmesbury dubiously remarked, Novem- 
ber 28th : *^ I cannot make out Gladstone, who 



304 William E. Gladstone 

seems to me a dark Horse." Mr Disraeli was 
chosen Chancellor of the Exchequer, and became 
Leader in the House of Commons, entering the 
Cabinet for the first time. " There was a scarcely 
disguised intention to revive protection." It was 
Free Trade or Protection, and the Peelites de- 
fended their fallen leader, Peel. ''A. makeshift 
budget " was introduced by Mr. Disraeli and 
passed. It was destined, it seems, that the Derby 
Administration was not to be supported, but to be 
driven out of power by Mr. Gladstone, who was 
to cross swords before the nation with his future 
parliamentary rival, Disraeli. 

Mr. Disraeli seemed now bent upon declar- 
ing the Free Trade Policy of Sir Robert Peel a 
failure. Mr. Disraeli's power of forgetfulness of 
the past is one of the most fortunate ever con- 
ferred upon a statesman. During the debate he 
declared that the main reason why his party had 
opposed Free Trade was not that it would injure 
the landlord, nor the farmer, but that "it would 
prove injurious to the cause of labor." " He also 
said, though interrupted by cries of astonishment 
and of ^ Oh, oh ! ' that not a single attempt had 
been made in the House of Commons to abrogate 
the measure of 1846." Mr. Sidney Herbert, who 
was wounded to the quick by the assaults on Sir 
Robert Peel, rose to defend the great Conservative 
statesman. His speech contained one passage 
of scathing invective addressed to Mr. Disraeli. 



The First Budget 305 

Mr. Herbert said : *' The memory of Sir Robert 
Peel requires no vindication — his memory is em- 
balmed in the grateful recollection of the people 
of this country; and I say, if ever retribution is 
wanted — for it is not words that humiliate, but 
deeds — if a man wants to see humiliation, which 
God knows is always a painful sight, he need but 
look there!" — and upon this Mr. Herbert pointed 
with his finger to Mr. Disraeli sitting on the 
Treasury Bench. The sting of invective is truth, 
and Mr. Herbert certainly spoke daggers if he 
used none ; yet the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
sat impassive as a Sphinx. 

Parliament was dissolved soon after the 
formation of the new government, July i, 1852, 
and during the recess, September 14, 1852, the 
Duke of Wellington passed away and a public 
funeral was given the victor of Waterloo. 

On the assembling of Parliament Mr. Glad- 
stone delivered a eulogy on the Duke, drawing 
special lessons from his illustrious career, which 
had been prolonged to a green old age. Mr. 
Gladstone said: ''While many of the actions of 
his life, while many of the qualities he possessed, 
are unattainable by others, there are lessons 
which we may all derive from the life and actions 
of that illustrious man. It may never be given 
to another subject of the British Crown to per- 
form services so brilliant as he performed ; it may 
never be given to another man to hold the sword 



306 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

which was to gain the independence of Enrope, 
to rally the nations around it, and while England 
saved herself by her constancy, to save Europe 
by her example ; it may never be given to another 
man, after having attained such eminence, after 
such an unexampled series of victories, to show 
equal moderation in peace as he has, shown great- 
ness in war, and to devote the remainder of his life 
to the cause of internal and external peace for 
that country which he has so well served ; it may 
never be given to another man to have equal 
authority, both with the Sovereign he served and 
with the Senate of which he was to the end a 
venerated member; it may never be given to 
another man after such a career to preserve, even 
to the last, the full possession of those great, 
faculties with which he was endowed, and to 
carry on the services of one of the most impor- 
tant departments of the State with unexampled 
regularity and success, even to the latest day of 
his life. These are circumstances, these are 
qualities, which may never occur again in the 
history of this country. But these are qualities 
which the Duke of Wellington displayed, of 
which we may all act in humble imitation : that 
sincere and unceasing devotion to our country ; 
that honest and upright determination to act for 
the benefit of the country on every occasion ; that 
devoted loyalty, which, while it made him ever 
anxious to serve the Crown, never induced him 



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The First Budget 309 

to conceal from the Sovereign that which he 
believed to be the truth ; that devotedness in the 
constant performance of duty; that temperance 
of his life, which enabled him at all times to give 
his mind and his faculties to the services which 
he was called on to perform ; that regular, con- 
sistent, and unceasing piety by which he was 
distinguished at all times of his life ; these are 
qualities that are attainable by others, and these 
are qualities which should not be lost as an 
example." 

At this session of Parliament Mr. Disraeli 
brought forward his second budget in a five hour 
speech. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer 
proposed to remit a portion of the taxes upon 
malt, tea, and sugar, but to counterbalance these 
losses he also proposed to extend the income-tax 
and house-tax. The debate, which was very 
personal, was prolonged several days, and Mr. 
Disraeli, towards it close, bitterly attacked several 
members, among them Sir James Graham, whom 
Mr. Gladstone not only defended, but in so doing 
administered a scathing rebuke to the Chancellor 
for his bitter invective and personal abuse. Mr. 
Gladstone's speech at tte close of Mr. Disraeli's 
presentation was crushing, and was generally 
regarded as giving the death-blow to this finan- 
cial scheme. 

Mr Gladstone told Mr, Disraeli that he was 
not entitled to charge ^yith inaoleng^ m^n of a§ 



310 William E. Gladstone 

high position and of as higli character in the 
House as himself, and when the cheers which 
had interrupted him had subsided, concluded : ^' I 
must tell the right honorable gentleman that he 
is not entitled to say to my right honorable friend, 
the member for Carlisle, that he regards but does 
not respect him. And I must tell him that 
whatever else he has learnt — and he has learnt 
much — he has not learnt to keep within those 
limits of discretion, of moderation, and of forbear- 
ance that ought to restrain the conduct and 
language of every member in this House, the 
disregard of which, while it is an offence in 
the meanest amongst us, is an offence of ten- 
fold weight when committed by the leader of the 
House of Commons." 

The thrilling scene enacted in the House of 
Commons on that memorable night is thus 
described : "In the following month the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer produced his second 
budget. It was an ambitious and a skillful attempt 
to reconcile conflicting interests, and to please all 
while offending none. The government had 
come into o£6.ce pledged to do something for the 
relief of the agricultural interests. They redeemed 
their pledge by reducing the duty on malt. This 
reduction created a deficit ; and they repaired the 
deficit by doubling the duty on inhabited houses. 
Unluckily, the agricultural interests proved, as 
usual, ungrateful to its benefactors, and made 



The First Budget 311 

light of the reduction on malt ; while those who 
were to pay for it in double taxation were natur- 
ally indignant. The voices of criticism, ^ angry, 
•loud, discordant voices,' were heard simultaneously 
on every side. The debate waxed fast and furious. 
In defending his hopeless proposals, Mr, Disraeli 
gave full scope to his most characteristic gift; 
he pelted his opponents right and Jeft with sar- 
casms, taunts, and epigrams, and went as near 
personal insult as the forms of Parliament permit. 
He sat down late at night, and Mr. Gladstone 
rose in a crowded and excited House to deliver an 
unpremeditated reply which has ever since been 
celebrated. Even the cold and colorless pages of 
' Hansard ' show signs of the excitement under 
which he labored, and of the tumultuous applause 
and dissent by which his opening sentences were 
interrupted. ^ The speech of the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer,' he said, ^ must be answered on the 
moment. It must be tried by the laws of decency 
and propriety.' " He indignantly rebuked his 
rival's language and demeanor. He reminded 
him of the discretion and decorum due from every 
member, but pre-eminently due from the leader of 
the House. He tore his financial scheme to 
ribbons. It was the beginning of a duel which 
lasted till death removed one of the combatants 
from the political arena. ' Those who had thought 
it impossible that any impression could be made 
upon the House after the speech of Mr. Disraeli 



312 William E. Gladstone 

had to acknowledge that a yet greater impression 
was produced by the unprepared reply of Mr. 
Gladstone.' The House divided and the govern- 
ment were left in a minority of nineteen. This 
happened in the early morning of December 17, 
1852. Within an hour of the division Lord 
Derby wrote to the Qaeen a letter announcing 
his defeat and the consequences which it must 
entail, and that evening at Osborne he placed his 
formal resignation in her majesty's hands." 

It is related as an evidence of the intense 
excitement, if not frenzy, that prevailed at the 
time, that Mr. Gladstone met with indignity at 
his Club. Greville, in his " Memoirs," says that, 
^' twenty ruffians of the Carleton Club" had given 
a dinner to Major Beresford, who had been 
charged with bribery at the Derby election and 
had escaped with only a censure, and that "after 
dinner, when they were drunk, they went up 
stairs and finding Mr. Gladstone alone in the 
drawing-room, some of them proposed to throw 
him out of the window. This they did not quite 
dare to do, but contented themselves with giving 
some insulting message or order to the waiter 
and then went away." Mr. Gladstone, however, 
remained a member of the Club until he joined 
the Whig administration in 1859. 

Mr. Gladstone's crushing expose of the 
blunders of Mr. Disraeli's budget was almost 
ludicrous in its completeness, and it was 



The First Budget 313 

universally felt tHat the sclienie could not sur- 
vive his brilliant attack. The effect that the 
merciless criticism of Disraeli's budget was not 
only the discomfiture of Mr. Disraeli and the 
overthrow of the Russell administration, but the 
elevation of Mr. Gladstone to the place vacated 
by Chancellor Disraeli. 

The Earl of Aberdeen became Prime Min- 
ister. The new government was a coalition of 
Whigs and Peelites, with a representative of the 
Radicals in the person of Sir William Molesworth. 
Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James 
Graham and Mr. Sidney Herbert were the Peel- 
ites in the Cabinet. Mr. Gladstone was chosen 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

We may refer here to a letter of Mr. Glad- 
stone, written Christmas, 185 1, in order to show 
his growing Liberalism. The letter was to 
Dr. Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus, on 
thQ positions and functions of the laity in the 
Church. This lettter is remarkable, because, as 
Dr. Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrew's, 
said at the time, '' it contained the germ of 
liberation and the political equality of all re- 
ligions." The Bishop published a controversial 
rejoinder, which drew from Dr. Gaisford, Dean of 
Christ Church, these emphatic words : '' Ypu 
have proved to my satisfaction that this gentle- 
man is unfit to represent the University," mean- 
ing the representation for Oxford in Parliament. 



314 William e. Gladstone 

This feeling was growing, for when the 
Russell Ministry fell and it became necessary for 
Mr. Gladstone, because he accepted a place in 
the Cabinet, to appeal for re-election to his con- 
stituents at Oxford, he met with much opposition, 
because of his Liberalism. Appealing to his 
university to return him, and endorse his accept- 
ance of office in the new Ministry of the Earl of 
Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone soon discovered that he 
had made many enemies by his manifest ten- 
dencies toward Liberal-Conservatism. He had 
given unmistakable evidence that he held less 
^rmly the old traditions of that unbending 
Toryism of which he was once the most promis- 
ing representative. Lord Derby, whom he had 
deposed, had been elected Chancellor of the 
University to succeed the Duke of Wellington, 
deceased. Consequently his return to the House 
was ardently contested. His opponents looked 
around for a candidate of strong Conservative 
principles. The Marquis of Chandos, who was 
first elected, declined to run in opposition to 
Mr. Gladstone ; but at length a suitable opponent 
was found in Mr. Dudley Perceval, of Christ 
Church, son of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, 
who was nominated January 4th. 

Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, one of the 
twenty colleges of Oxford, proposed Mr. Glad- 
stone, and Archdeacon Denison, leader of the 



The First Budget 315 

High Cliurcli party, proposed Mr. Dudley Per- 
ceval. According to the custom at university 
elections, neither candidate was present. It was 
objected to Mr. Gladstone that he had voted 
improperly on ecclesiastical questions, and had 
accepted office in "a hybrid ministry." The 
" Times " described Mr. Perceval as " a very near 
relative of our old friend Mrs. Harris. To 
remove any doubt on this point, let him be 
exhibited at Exeter Hall with the documentary, 
evidence of his name, existence and history ; his 
first-class, his defeat at Finsbury, his talents, his 
principles. If we must go to Oxford to record 
our votes it would at least be something to know 
that we were voting against a real man and not 
a mere name." The ''Morning Chronicle," on 
the other hand, affirmed that a section of the 
Carleton Club were ' ' making a tool of the Oxford 
Convocation for the purpose of the meanest and 
smallest political rancor against Mr. Gladstone." 

Mr. Gladstone, who fought the battle on 
ecclesiastical lines, wrote, after the nomination, 
to the chairman of his election committee, as 
follows : 

" Unless I had a full and clear conviction 
that the interests of the Church, whether as 
relates to the legislative functions of Parliament, 
or the impartial and wise recommendation of fit 
persons to her majesty for high ecclesiastical 
offices, were at least as safe in the hands of 



3i6 William E. Gladstone 

Lord Aberdeen as in those of Lord Derby 
(tliougb I would on no account disparage Lord 
Derby's personal sentiments towards tbe Cburcli), 
I should not have accepted office under Lord 
Aberdeen. As regards the second, if it be 
thought that during twenty years of public life, 
or that during the latter part of them, I have 
failed to give guarantees of attachment to the 
interests of the Church — to such as so think I 
can offer neither apology nor pledge. To those 
who think otherwise, I tender the assurance that 
I have not by my recent assumption of office 
made any change whatever in that particular, or 
in any principles relating to it." 

Mr. Gladstone was again elected by a fair 
majority and returned to Parliament. Seventy-" 
four of the professors voted for Mr. Gladstone 
and fifteen for Mr. Perceval. 

When Parliament assembled the Earl of 
Aberdeen announced in the House of Lords that 
the measures of the Government would be 
both Conservative and Liberal, — at home to 
maintain Free Trade principles and to pursue the 
commercial and financial system of the late 
Sir Robert Peel, and abroad to secure the gen- 
eral peace of Europe without relaxing defensive 
measures. 

Mr. Gladstone had already proved himself to 
have a wonderful mastery of figures, and the 
confused technicalities of finance. He did not 



The First Budget ^17 

disappoint the hopes of his friends in regard to 
his fiscal abilities. On the contrary, he speedily 
inaugurated a new and brilliant era in finance. 
Previous to presenting his first budget, in 1853, 
Mr. Gladstone brought forward a scheme for the 
reduction of the national debt, which was ap- 
proved by Radicals as well as Conservatives, and 
adopted by the House. The scheme worked 
most successfully until the breaking out of the 
Crimean war. During this very short period of 
two years the public debt was reduced by more 
than $57,500,000. 

In consequence of his general reputation 
and also of this brilliant financial scheme, the 
first budget of Mr. Gladstone was waited for with 
intense interest. His first budget was introduced 
April 18, 1853. It was one of his greatest 
budgets, and for statesmanlike breadth of concep- 
tion it has never been surpassed. In bringing it 
forward Mr. Gladstone spoke five hours, and 
during that length of time held the House spell- 
bound. The speech was delivered with the 
greatest ease, and was perspicuity itself through- 
out. Even when dealing with the most abstruse 
financial detail his language flowed on without 
interruption, and he never paused for a word. 
" Here, was an orator who could apply all the 
resources of a burnished rhetoric to the elucida- 
tion of figures ; who could make pippins and 
cheese interesting and tea serious ; who could 



3i8 William e. Gladstone 

sweep tlie widest liorizon of the financial future 
and yet stoop to bestow the minutest attention on 
the microcosm of penny stamps and post-horses. 
The members on the floor and ladies in the 
gallery of the House listened attentively and 
showed no signs of weariness throughout." A 
contemporary awarded to him the palm for un- 
surpassed fluency and choice of diction, and says : 

" The impression produced upon the minds 
of the crowded and brilliant assembly by Mr. 
Gladstone's evident mastery and grasp of the 
subject, was, that England had at length found 
a skillful financier, upon whom the mantle of 
Peel had descended. The cheering when the 
right honorable gentleman sat down was of the 
most enthusiastic and prolonged character, and 
his friends and colleagues hastened to tender him 
their warm congratulations upon the distin- 
guished success he had achieved in his first 
budget." 

The budget provided for the gradual reduction 
of the income tax to expire in i860 ; for an in- 
crease in the duty on spirits ; for the abolition of 
the soap duties ; the reduction of the tax on cabs 
and hackney coaches ; the introduction of the 
penny receipt stamp ^.nd the equalization of the 
assessed taxes on property. By these provisions 
it was proposed to make life easier and cheaper 
for large and numerous classes. The duty on 
123 articles was abolished and the duty on 133 



The First Budget 319 



others reduced, the total relief amounting to 
$25,000,000. Mr. Gladstone gave a clear expo- 
sition of the income tax, which he declared was 
never intended to be permanent. It had been 
the last resort in times of national danger, and he 
could not consent to retain it as a part of the 
permanent and ordinary finances of the country. 
It was ojectionable on account of its unequal 
incidence, of the harrassing investigation into 
private affairs which it entailed and of the frauds 
to which it inevitably led. 

The value of the reduction in the necessities 
of life proposed by Mr. Gladstone is seen from 
the following from a contemporary writer: 

" The present budget, more than any other 
budget within our recollection, is a cupboard 
budget ; otherwise, a poor man's budget. With 
certain very ugly features, the thing has 
altogether a good, hopeful aspect, together with 
very faS- proportions. It is not given to any 
Chancellor of the Exchequer to make a budget 
fascinating as a fairy tale. Nevertheless, there 
are visions of wealth and comfort in the present 
budget that mightily recommend it to us. It 
seems to add color and fatness to the poor man's 
beef; to give flavor and richness to the poor 
man's plum-pudding. The budget is essentially 
a cupboard budget ; and let the name of Glad- 
stone be, for the time at least, musical at the 
poor man's fireside." 



^20 William E. Gladstone 

It unquestionably establisHed Gladstone as 
the foremost financier of liis day. Greville, in 
His ^' Memoirs," says of bim : " He spoke for 
five Hours ; and by universal consent it was one 
of tHe grandest displays and most able financial 
statements that ever was Heard in tHe House of 
Commons ; a great scHeme, boldly atid skillfully 
and Honestly devised, disdaining popular clamor 
and pressure from witHout, and tHe execution of 
its absolute perfection." 

We reproduce some extracts from tHis impor- 
tant speecH : " Depend upon it, wHen you come 
to close quarters witH tHis subject, wHen you 
come to measure and test tHe respective relations 
of intelligence and labor and property in all tHeir 
myriad and complex forms, and wHen you come 
to represent tHose relations in arithmetical results, 
you are undertaking an operation of wHicH I 
sHould say it was beyond tHe power of man to 
conduct it witH satisfaction, but wHicH, at any 
rate, is an operation to wHicH you ougHt not con- 
stantly to recur ; for if, as my noble friend once 
said witH universal applause, tHis country could 
not bear a revolution once a year, I will venture 
to say tHat it cannot bear a reconstruction of tHe 
income tax once a year. 

" Whatever you do in regard to tHe income 
tax, you must be bold, you must be intelligible, 
you must be decisive. You must not palter witH 
it. If you do, I Have striven at least to point 



The First Budget 321 

out as well as my feeble powers will permit, the 
almost desecration I would say, certainly the 
gross breach of duty to your country, of which 
you will be found guilty, in thus putting to 
hazard one of the most potent and effective 
among all its material resources. I believe it to 
be of vital importance, whether you keep this tax 
or whether you part with it, that you should 
either keep it or should leave it in a state in 
which it will be fit for service on an emergency, 
and that it will be impossible to do if you break 
up the basis of your income tax. 

"If the Committee have followed me, they 
will understand that we found ourselves on the 
principle that the income-tax ought to be marked 
as a temporary measure ; that the public feeling 
that relief should be given to intelligence and 
skill as compared with property ought to be met, 
and may be met with justice and with safety, in 
the manner we have pointed out ; that the income 
tax in its operation ought to be mitigated by every 
rational means, compatible with its integrity; 
and, above all, that it should be associated in the 
last term of its existence, as it was in the first, 
with those remissions of indirect taxation which 
have so greatly redoubled to the profit of this 
country and have set so admirable an example — 
an example that has already in some quarters 
proved contagious to the other nations of the 
earth, These are the principles on which we 



322 William E. Gladstone 

stand, and these the figures. I have shown you 

that if you grant us the taxes which we ask, to 

the moderate amount of ^2,500,000 in the whole, 

much less than that sum for the present year, 

you, or the Parliament which may be in existence 

in i860, will be in the condition, if it shall so 

think fit, to part with the income tax. 

'^Sir, I scarcely dare to look at the clock, 

shamefully reminding me, as it must, how long, 

how shamelessly, I have trespassed on the time 

of the committee. All I can say in apology is 

that I have endeavored to keep closely to the 

topics which I had before me — 

— immensum spatiis confecimus aequor, 
Et jam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla. 

" These are the proposals of the Government.. 
They may be approved or they may be condemned, 
but I have at least this full and undoubting con- 
fidence, that it will on all hands be admitted that 
we have not sought to evade the difficulties of 
our position ; that we have not concealed those 
difficulties, either from ourselves or from others ; 
that we have not attempted to counteract them 
by narrow or flimsy expedients ; that we have 
prepared plans which, if you will adopt them, 
will go some way to close up many vexed 
financial questions — questions such as, if not 
now settled, may be attended with public incon- 
venience, and even with public danger, in future 
years and under less favorable circumstances ; 



The First Budget 323 

that we have endeavored, in the plans we have 
now submitted to you, to make the path of our 
successors in future years not more arduous but 
more easy ; and I may be permitted to add that, 
while we have sought to do justice, by the 
changes we propose in taxation, to intelligence 
and skill as compared with property — while we 
have sought to do justice to the great laboring 
community of England by furthering their relief 
from indirect taxation, we have not been guided 
by any desire to put one class against another. 
We have felt we should best maintain our own 
honor, that we should best meet the views of 
Parliament, and best promote the interests of the 
country, by declining to draw any invidious dis- 
tinctions between class and class, by adapting it 
to ourselves as a sacred aim to differ and dis- 
tribute — burden if we must, benefit if we may — 
with equal and impartial hand ; and we have the 
consolation of believing that by proposals such 
as these we contribute, as far as in us lies, not 
only to develop the material resources of the 
country, but to knit the hearts of the various 
classes of this great nation yet more closely 
than heretofore to that throne and to those 
institutions under which it is their happiness 
to live." 

It is seldom that a venture of such magni- 
tude as Mr. Gladstone's first budget meets with 
universal success. But from the outset the plan 



524 William E. Gladstone 

was received with universal favor. Besides the 
plaudits with, which the orator was greeted at the 
conclusion of his speech, his proposals were 
received favorably by the whole nation. Being 
constructed upon Free Trade principles, it was 
welcomed by the press and the country. It added 
greatly, not only to the growing reputation of the 
new Chancellor of the Exchequer as a financier, 
but also to his popularity. 

The following anecdote of Mr. Gladstone is 
told by Walter Jerrold and is appropriate as well 
as timely here : 

^' During Mr. Gladstone's first tenure of 
office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, a curious 
adventure occurred to him in the London offices 
of the late Mr. W. Lindsay, merchant, shipowner . 
and M. P. There one day entered a brusque and 
wealthy shipowner of Sunderland, inquiring for 
Mr. Lindsay. As Mr. Lindsay was out, the 
visitor was requested to wait in an adjacent room, 
where he found a person busily engaged in copy- 
ing some figures. The Sunderland shipowner 
paced the room several times and took careful 
note of the writer's doings, and at length said to 
him, ^ Thou writes a bonny hand, thou dost.' 

" ' I am glad you think so,' was the reply. 

^' ' Ah, thou dost. Thou makes thy figures 
weel. Thou 'rt just the chap I want.' 

*^ ' Indeed ! ' said the Londoner, 




The Sunderland Ship-Ownek Surpeised. 



The First Budget 327 

"*Yes, indeed,' said the Sunderland man. 
* I'm a man of few words. Noo, if thou 'It come 
over to canny ould Sunderland thou seest I'll 
give thee a hundred and twenty pounds a year, 
and that's a plum thou dost not meet with every 
day in thy life, I reckon. Noo then.' 

''The Londoner replied that he was much 
obliged for the offer, and would wait till Mr. 
Lindsay returned, whom he would consult upon 
the subject. Accordingly, on the return of 
the latter, he was informed of the shipowner's 
tempting offer. 

" ' Very well,' said Mr. Lindsay, ' I should be 
sorry to stand in your way. One hundred and 
twenty pounds is more than I can afford to pay 
you in the department in which you are at 
present placed. You will find my friend a good 
and kind master, and, under the circumstances, 
the sooner you know each other the better. 

Allow me, therefore, Mr. , to introduce you 

to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Chancellor 
of the Exchequer.' The Sunderland shipowner 
was a little taken aback at first, but he soon 
recovered his self-possession, and enjoyed the 
joke quite as much as Mr. Gladstone did." 






CHAPTER X 
The Crimean War 

^ [THE Crimean War, tHe great event*wltli 
W' J wHicli the Aberdeen Cabinet was 
^^F associated, was a contest between 

Rnssia and Tnrkey, England and 
France. A dispute wbicb arose be- 
tween Russia and Turkey as to the possession 
the Holy Places of Jerusalem was the precipi- 
tating cause. For a long time the Greek and the 
Latin Churcbes bad contended for tbe possession 
of tbe Holy Land. Russia supported tbe claim 
of tbe Greek Cburcb, and France tbat of tbe 
Papal Cburcb. Tbe Czar claimed a Protectorate 
over all tbe Greek subjects of tbe Porte. Russia 
sought to extend her conquests south and to 
seize upon Turkey. France and England sus- 
tained Turkey. Sardinia afterwards joined tbe 
Anglo-French alliance. 

Tbe people of England generally favored 
tbe war, and evinced much enthusiasm at the 
prospect of it. Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Glad- 
stone wished England to stand aloof. The 
328 



The Crimean War 329 

Peelite members of the cabinet were generally 
less inclined to war tban tbe WHigs. Lord 
Palmerston and Lord John Rnssell favored 
England's support of Turkey. Some thought 
that England could have averted the war by 
pursuing persistently either of two courses : 
to inform Turke}^ that England would give 
her no aid ; or to warn Russia that if she 
went to war, England would fight for Turkey. 
But \\n.th a ministry halting between two 
opinions, and the people demanding it, En^ 
land ''drifted into war" with Russia. 

July 2, 1853, the Russian troops crossed the 
Pruth and occupied the Danubian Principalities, 
which had been by treaty, in 1849, evacuated b}^ 
Turkey and Russia, and declared by both 
powers neutral territory between them. London 
was startled, October 4, 1853, by a telegram 
announcing that the Sultan had declared war 
against Russia. England and France jointly 
sent an ultimaticTn to the Czar, to which no 
answer was returned. Alarch 28, 1854, England 
declared war. 

On the 1 2th of March, while great excite- 
ment prevailed and public meetings were held 
throughout England, declaring for and against 
war, Mr. Gladstone made an address on the 
occasion of the inaiiguration of the statue of 
Sir Robert Peel, at Manchester. He spoke of 
the designs of Russia, and described her as a 



330 William E. Gladstone 

power which threatened to override all other 
powers, and as a sonrce of danger to the peace 
of the world. Against sncli designs, seen in 
Rnssia's attempt to overthrow the Ottoman 
Empire, England had determined to set herself 
at whatever cost. War was a calamity that the 
government did not desire to bring npon the 
conntry, '^a calamity w4iich stained the face of 
natnre with linnian gore, gave loose rein to 
crime, and took bread from the people. No 
donbt negotiation is repugnant to the national 
impatience at the sight of injustice and oppres- 
sion ; it is beset with delay, intrigue, and 
chicane ; but these are not so horrible as war, if 
negotiation can be made to result in saving this 
country from a calamity which deprives the 
nation of subsistence and arrests the operations 
of industry. To attain that result * * * 
Her IMajesty's IMinisters have persevered in 
exercising that self-command and that self- 
restraint which impatience may mistake for 
indifference, feebleness or cowardice, but which 
are truly the cro^^ming greatness of a great 
people, and which do not evince the want of 
readiness to vindicate, when the time comes, 
the honor of this country." 

In November a conference of some of the 
European powers was held at Vienna to avert 
the Af0.r by mediating between Russia and 
Turkey, but was unsuccessful. Mr. Gladstone 



The Crimean War 331 

said: "Austria urged the two leading states, 
England and France, to send in their ultimatum 
to Russia, and promised it her decided support. 
* * * Prussia at the critical moment, to speak 
in homely language, bolted. * * * Jn fact, 
she broke up the European concert, by which 
France and England had hoped to pull down 
the stubbornness of the Czar." 

Mr. Gladstone had opposed the war, not 
only on humanitarian and Christian grounds, 
but also because the preparation of a war budget 
overthrew all his financial schemes and hopes ; 
a new budget was necessary, and he as Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer must prepare it. Know- 
ing that the struggle was inevitable, he therefore 
bent his energies to the task and conceived a 
scheme for discharging the expenses of the war 
out of the current revenue, provided it required 
no more than ten million pounds extra, so that 
the country should not be permanently bur- 
dened. It would require to do this the imposi- 
tion of fresh taxes. 

" It thus fell to the lot of the most pacific 
of Ministers, the devotee of retrenchment, and 
the anxious cultivator of all industrial arts, to 
prepare a war budget, and to meet as well as he 
might the exigencies of a conflict which had so 
cruelly dislocated all the ingenious devices of 
financial optimism." 



332 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone afterw^ards moved for over 
six and a half millions of pounds more than 
alread}^ g'ranted, and proposed a further increase 
in the taxes. Air. Disraeli opposed T^Ir. Glad- 
stone's budget. He devised a scheme to borrow 
and thus increase the debt. He opposed the 
imposition of new taxes. Mr. Gladstone said : 
^' Ever}^ good motive and every bad motive, com- 
bated only by the desire of the approval of 
honorable men and by conscientious rectitude — 
every motive of ease, comfort, and of certainty 
spring forward to induce a Chancellor of the 
Exchequer to become the first man to recom- 
mend a loan." Mr. Gladstone was sustained. 

The war had begun in earnest. The Duke 
of Newcastle received a telegram on the 21st 
of September announcing that 25,000 English 
troops, 25,000 French and Sooo Turks had 
landed safely at Eupatoria "without meeting 
with au}^ resistance, and had already- begun to 
march upon Sebastopol." 

The war was popular with the English peo- 
ple, but the ministry of Lord Aberdeen, which 
inaugurated it, was becoming unpopular. This 
became apparent in the autumn of 1S54. There 
were not actual dissensions in the Cabinet, but 
there was great want of harmon}^ as to the 
conduct of the war. The Queen knew with 
what reluctance Lord Aberdeen had entered 
upon the war, but she had the utmost confi- 



The Crimean War 333 

dence in him as a man and a statesman. SHe 
was most desirous that the war be prosecuted 
with vigor, and trusted the Premier for the 
realization of her hopes and those of the nation, 
but unity in the Cabinet was necessary for the 
successful prosecution of the war. 

Parliament assembled December 12, 1854, 
" under circumstances more stirring and momen- 
tous than any which had occurred since the year 
of Waterloo." The management of the war was 
the main subject under discussion. The Eng- 
lish troops had covered themselves with glory 
in the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inker- 
mann. But the sacrifice was great. Thousands 
were slain and homes made desolate, while the 
British army was suffering greatly, and the 
sick and wounded were needing attention. Half 
a million pounds were subscribed in three months, 
and Miss Florence Nightingale with thirty-seven 
lady nurses, soon to be reinforced by fifty more, 
set out at once for the seat of war to nurse the 
sick and wounded soldiers. It is recorded that 
" they reached Scutari on the 5th of November, 
in time to receive the soldiers who had been 
wounded at the battle of Balaclava. On the 
arrival of Miss Nightingale the great hospital 
at Scutari, in which up to this time all had been 
chaos and discomfort, was reduced to order, and 
those tender lenitives which only woman^s 
thought and woman's sympathy can bring to 



334 William e. Gladstone 

the sick man's coucli, were applied to solace 
and alleviate tlie agonies of pain or tlie torture 
of fever and prostration." 

It was natural to attribute tlie want of 
proper management to tlie ministry, and lience 
the Government found itself under fire. In the 
House of Lords the Earl of Derby condemned 
the inefficient manner in which the war had 
been carried on, the whole conduct of the 
ministry in the war, and the insufficiency of 
the number of troops sent out to check the 
power of Russia. The Duke of Newcastle 
replied, and while not defending all the actions 
of the ministry during the war, yet contended' 
that the government were prepared to prosecute 
it with resolve and unflinching firmness. While 
not standing ready to reject overtures of peace, 
they would not accept any but an honorable 
termination of the war. The ministry relied 
upon the army, the people, and upon their allies 
with the full confidence of ultimate success. 

Mr. Disraeli, in the House of Commons, 
attacked the policy of the ministry from begin- 
ning to end. Everything was a blunder or a 
mishap of some description or other ; the 
government had invaded Russia with 25,000 
troops without proviaing any provision for their 
support. 

When the House of Commons assembled, 
in January, 1855, it became apparent that there 



The Crimean War 335 

was a determination to sift to tlie bottom tlie 
charges that Had been made against the min- 
istry regarding their manner of carrying on the 
war. The Qneen expressed her sympathy for 
Lord Aberdeen, who was in a most unenviable 
position. Motions hostile to the government 
were introduced in the House of Lords, while in 
the House of Commons Mr. Roebuck moved for a 
select committee "to inquire into the condition 
of the army before Sebastopol, and into the con- 
duct of those departments of the government 
whose duty it has been to minister to the wants 
of the army.'' 

Lord John Russell resigned his office and 
left his colleagues to face the vote. He could 
not see how ,Mr. Roebuck's motion could be 
resisted. This seemed to portend the downfall 
of the ministry. The Duke of Newcastle, Sec- 
retary of War, offered to retire to save the 
government. Lord Palmerston believed that 
the breaking up of the ministry would be a 
calamity to the country, but he doubted the 
expediency of the retirement of the Duke of 
Newcastle, and his own fitness for the place of 
Minister of War, if vacated. Finally the Cabinet 
resolved to hold together, except Lord John 
Russell. 

In the debate it was declared that the con- 
dition of things at the seat of war was exagger- 
atedj but the speech of Mr. Stafford caused a 



336 William e. Gladstone 

great sensation. He described the sufferings 
which he declared he had himself witnessed. 
He summed up by quoting the language of 
a French officer, who said : ^^ You seem, sir, to 
carry on war according to the system of the 
Middle Ages." The situation of the ministry 
was critical before, but this speech seemed to 
make sure the passage of the resolutions. 

It was under all these depressing circum- 
stances that Mr. Gladstone rose to defend him- 
self and his colleagues. In a fine passage he 
thus described what the position of the Cabinet 
would have been if they had shrunk from their 
duty : '' What sort of epitaph would have been 
written over their remains ? He himself would 
have written it thus : Here lie the dishonored 
ashes of a ministry which found England at 
peace and left it in war, which was content to 
enjoy the emoluments of office and to wield the 
sceptre of power so long as no man had the 
courage to question their existence. They saw 
the storm gathering over the country ; they 
heard the agonizing accounts which were almost 
daily received of the state of the sick and 
wounded in the East. These things did not 
move them. But as soon as the Honorable 
Member for Sheffield raised his hand to point 
the thunderbolt, they became conscience-strick- 
en with a sense of guilt, and, hoping to escape 
punishment, they ran away from duty." 



The Crimean War 337 

This eloquent passage was received witli 
tumultuous cheers. Mr. Gladstone claimed that 
there had been many exaggerations as to the 
state of the army and there were then more 
than 30,000 British troops under arms before 
Sebastopol. The administration of the War 
Department at home was no doubt defective, 
but he declined to admit that it had not im- 
proved, or that it was as bad as to deserve 
formal censure, and the Duke of Newcastle did 
not merit the condemnation sought to be cast 
on him as the head of the War Department. 

Mr. Disraeli was eagerly heard when he 
rose to speak. He said that the government 
admitted that they needed reconstruction, and 
that now the House was called upon to vote 
confidence in the administration. It was not 
the Duke of Newcastle nor the military system,, 
but the policy of the whole Cabinet which he 
characterized as a " deplorable administration.'* 

The result of the vote was a strange sur-^ 
prise to all parties, and one of the greatest ever 
experienced in Parliamentary history. The 
vote for Mr. Roebuck's committee was 205 ; 
and against it, 148; a majority against the 
ministry of 157. ''The scene was a peculiar 
and probably an unparalleled one. The cheers 
which are usually heard from one side or the 
other of the House on the numbers of a divi- 
sion being announced^ were not forthcoming. 



338 William E. Gladstone 

The members were for a moment spellbound 
with, astonisbment, tben tbere came a murmur 
of amazement and finally a burst of general 
laugbter." The resignation of the Aberdeen 
ministry was announced February ist, tbe 
Duke of Newcastle stating that it bad been bis 
intention to give up tbe of&ce of Secretary of 
War wbetber Mr. Roebuck's resolution bad 
passed or not. 

Thus was overtbrown tbe famous coalition 
Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen — one of tbe most 
brilliant ever seen — a Cabinet distinguished for 
its oratorical strength, and for the conspicuous 
abilities of its chief members. Mr. Gladstone, 
who was the most distinguished Peelite in the 
Cabinet, certainly could not, up to this period, 
be suspected of lukewarmness in the prosecu- 
tion of the war. Lord Palmerston formed a 
reconstructed rather than a new Cabinet. Mr. 
Gladstone and his friends at first declined to 
serve in the new Cabinet, out of regard for the 
Duke of Newcastle and Lord Aberdeen, the real 
victims of the adverse vote. But these noble- 
men besought Mr. Gladstone not to let his 
personal feelings stand in tbe way of his 
own interests, and not to deprive the country 
of his great services, so he resumed ofE.ce as 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Palmerston 
had been regarded as the coming man, and 
his name carried weight upon the Continent and 



The Crimean War 339 

at home. But tlie new ministry was surrounded 
by serious difficulties, and did not pull together 
very long. The War Minister, Lord Panmure, 
entered upon his duties with energy, and pro- 
posed, February i6th, his remedy for existing 
evils; but on the 19th of February Mr. Layard 
in the House of Commons said, ''the country 
stood on the brink of ruin — it had fallen into the 
abyss of disgrace and become the laughing-stock 
of Europe." He declared that the new ministry 
differed little from the last. 

Lord Palmerston, in answer to inquiries, 
lamented the sufferings of the army and con- 
fessed that mishaps had been made, but the 
present ministry had come forward in an 
emergency and from a sense of public duty, 
and he believed would obtain the confidence of 
the country. But another strange turn in 
events was at hand. Mr. Roebuck gave notice 
of the appointment of his committee. Hostility 
to the ministry was disclaimed, but Mr. Glad- 
stone, Sir James Graham and Mr. Sidney Her- 
bert took the same view of the question they 
had previously taken. '' They were opposed to 
the investigation as a dangerous breach of a 
great constitutional principle, and if the com- 
mittee was granted, it would be a precedent 
from whose repetition the Executive could never 
again escape, however unreasonable might be 



340 William E. Gladstone 

the nature of the demand. They therefore 
retired from o£B.ce. 

The report of the committee, when pre- 
sented, practically advised a vote of censure 
upon the Aberdeen Cabinet for the sufferings 
of the British army, hence the house declined 
to entertain it by a large majority of 107. As 
the appointment of the committee, however, was 
the only way to allay the popular excitement, 
there were many who thought that the Peelites 
would have done well to recognize the urgency 
of the crisis and not to have abandoned the 
Government. 

The resignation of Mr. Gladstone made 
him very unpopular. However, " the wave of 
unpopularity lasted perhaps for a couple of 
years, and was afterwards replaced by a long- 
sustained popularity, which has not been ex- 
ceeded by any statesman of the country. 
Greville referred to Gladstone about this time 
as ^ the most unpopular man in the country.' " 

March 2d the Emperor Nicholas died sud- 
denly, and there were momentary hopes of 
peace ; but his successor, Alexander, resolved 
to prosecute the struggle rather than yield the 
positions taken by the late Czar. He issued a 
warlike proclamation, and though he agreed to 
take part in the Vienna Conference of European 
powers, to be held March 15th, there were no 



The Crimean War 341 

signs that lie intended to recede from the 
Russian claims. 

Lord John Russell was sent to Vienna as 
English Plenipotentiary. The English aimed 
to secure the limitation of the preponderance of 
Russia in the Black Sea, and the acknowledg- 
ment of Turkey as one of the great European 
powers. To gain these points would, it was 
thought, end the war. Russia ''would not con- 
sent to limit the number of her ships — if she 
did so she forfeited her honor, she would be no 
longer Russia. They did not want Turkey, 
they would be glad to maintain the Sultan, but 
they knew it was impossible ; he must perish ; 
they were resolved not to let any other power 
have Constantinople — they must not have that 
dooi to their dominions in the Black Sea shut 
against them." The Conference failed, and 
Lord John Russell was held responsible for its 
failure, and was eventually forced out of the 
Cabinet on that account. The failure of the 
Vienna negotiations produced great excitement, 
and the ministry were attacked and defeated 
in both Houses of Parliament. Mr. Disraeli 
offered a resolution of dissatisfaction in the 
House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone spoke dur- 
ing the debate on the failure of the Vienna 
Conference, and defended the war of the Crimea. 
He did not consider it a failure, for Russia now 
agreed to most of the points raised by the allies, 



^42 William E. Gladstone 

and the only matter to be adjusted, was the propo- 
sition to limit the power of Russia in tlie Black 
Sea. Personally, lie had formerly favored the 
curtailment of Russians power there, but he now 
thought that such a proposal implied a great 
indignity to Russia. He believed that the pro- 
posal of Russia to give to Turkey the power of 
opening and shutting the straits was one calcu- 
lated to bring about a peaceful settlement. The 
time was favorable to make peace. Lord Jphn 
Russell replied vigorously to Mr. Gladstone. 
The House decided by a majority of loo to 
support the ministry in the further prosecution 
of the war until a safe and honorable peace 
could be secured. 

But on the loth of July Sir E. Bulwer 
Lytton offered the following resolution : "That 
the conduct of our Ministry, in the recent 
negotiations at Vienna, has, in the opinion of 
this House, shaken the confidence of this 
country in those to whom its affairs are en- 
trusted." Lord John Russell again declined to 
face discussion and resigned. During the de- 
bate on the motion Mr. Disraeli bitterly attacked 
Lord John Russell and the Premier, Lord Palm- 
ers ton. But Mr. Gladstone said that so far 
from blaming the Ministry for hesitating about 
the offers of peace at Vienna, he blamed them 
for fiot giving the propositions that consideration 
which their gravity demanded, and for abruptly 



The Crimean War 



345 



terminating the Conference and closing tHe liope 
of an honorable peace. 

Mr. Gladstone, on the 3d of August, made 
another powerful appeal for the cessation of the 
war. He held that there was now no definite 
object for continuing the struggle; defended 
the Austrian proposals ; defied the Western 
powers to control the future destinies of Russia, 
save for a moment ; and he placed " the individual 
responsibility of the continuance of the war on 
the head of the Ministry." 

But while Sebastopol held out there was no 
prospect of peace with Russia. Finally, in 
September, that fortress was taken and de- 
stroyed, and the Peace of Paris was concluded, 
March, 1856. 




House of Commons. 



CHAPTER XI 
In Opposition to the Government ' 

/IT was in February, 1855, ^^^^ ^^' Glad- 
^^y stone resigned his seat in the Cabinet. 
^^ After the Treaty of Paris, March, 1856, 
which put an end to the Crimean War, 
Mr. Gladstone found himself in oppo- 
sition to the Ministry of Lord Palmerston. He 
had assumed a position of independence, associat- 
ing politically with neither party. The political 
parties dreaded criticism and attack from him, 
*" for he was not properly constructed for the de- 
fense of either. He had himself declared his 
"sympathies" were "with the Conservatives, 
and his opinions with the Liberals," and that he 
and his Peelite colleagues, during this period of 
political isolation, were like roving icebergs on 
which men could not land with safety, but with 
which ships might come into perilous collision. 
Their weight was too great not to count, but it 
counted first this way and then that. Mr. Glad- 
stone was conscientious in his opposition. He 
said: "I greatly felt being turned out of office. 

346 



^N Opposition to the Government 347 

I saw great things to do. I longed to do them. 
I am losing the best years of my life out of my 
natural service. Yet I have never ceased to 
rejoice that I am not in office with Palmerston, 
when I have seen the tricks, the shufflings, the 
frauds he daily has recourse to as to his business. 
I rejoice not to sit on the Treasury Bench with 
him." 

In August, 1855, Lord Aberdeen said: 
" Gladstone intends to be Prime Minister. He 
has great qualifications, but some serious defects. 
He is supreme in the House of Commons. He 
is too obstinate ; if a man can be too honest, he 
is too honest. I have told Gladstone that when 
he is Prime Minister, I will have a seat in his 
Cabinet, if he desires it, without an office." 

During 1856, several measures came before 
Parliament which Mr. Gladstone opposed. He 
vindicated the freedom of the Belgian press, 
whose liberty some of the powers would curtail, 
and opposed resolutions to consider the state of 
education in England and Wales, as tending to 
create a central controlling power, involving 
secular instruction and endless religious quarrels. 
He also opposed the budget of Sir G. C. Lewis, 
which imposed more duties upon the tea and 
sugar of the working-man, and was said to be 
generally at variance with the policy pursued by 
every enlightened minister of finance, Besides, 
he condemned the continuance of the war duties 



348 William E. Gladstone 

in times of peace. ^^ He was a particularly acute 
thorn in the side of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer, and criticised the budget with unsparing 
vigor. ^ Gladstone seems bent on leading Sir 
George Lewis a weary life,' wrote Mr. Greville. 
But finance was by no means the only subject of 
this terrible free-lance." 

A resolution was offered in the House of 
Commons expressing disapprobation with the 
English Cabinet for sanctioning, in 1855 and '56, 
the violation of international law, by secretly 
enlisting the subjects of the United States as 
recruits for the British army, by the intervention 
of the English Ambassador. Mr. Gladstone 
said : "It appears to me that the two cardinal 
aims that we oiight to keep in view in the 
discussion of this question are peace and a 
thoroughly cordial understanding with America 
for one, the honor and fame of England for the 
other. I am bound to say that in regard to 
neither of these points am I satisfied with the 
existing state of things, or with the conduct of 
Her Majesty's Government. A cordial under- 
standing with America has not been preserved, 
and the honor of this country has been com- 
promised." 

Lord Palmerston, though very popular with 
the people, had greatly offended a large portion 
of the House of Commons by his interference in 
China. A lorcha, called the Arrow^ flying the 



In Opposition to the Government 349 

British flag, had been seized by the Chinese, and 
the question arose as to the right of the vessel to 
the protection of England. The opponents of 
the government contended that the vessel was 
built in China, was captured by pirates, and 
recaptured by the Chinese, and hence had no 
claim to British protection. To bring the matter 
to an issue Mr. Cobden introduced a resolution 
of inquiry and censure. For five nights the 
debate was protracted, and many able speeches 
were made on both sides, but Mr. Gladstone 
made one of the most effective speeches, against 
the ministry. He said : " Every man, I trust, 
will give his vote with the consciousness that it 
may depend upon his single vote whether the 
miseries, the crimes, the atrocities that I fear are 
now proceeding in China are to be discounte- 
nanced or not. We have now come to the crisis of 
the case. England is not yet committed. With 
you, then, with us, with every one of us, it rests 
to show that this House, which is the first, the 
most ancient, and the noblest temple of freedom 
in the world, is also the temple of that ever- 
lasting justice without which freedom itself would 
only be a name or only a curse to mankind." 
The Premier ably defended himself, but the 
resolution of Mr. Cobden was passed. Parlia- 
ment was dissolved March 21, 1857, ^^^ Lord 
Palmerston appealed to the country. He was 
victorious at the polls. Among the prominent 



550 William E. Gladstone 

Liberals who lost their seats were Cobden, Bright, 
and Milner Gibson. The Peelites suffered loss 
too, but Mr. Gladstone was again elected for 
Oxford University. However, Mr. Greville 
writes, under date of June 3d : ^' Gladstone 
hardly ever goes near the House of Commons, 
and never opens his lips." But his indifference 
and silence were not to last long. 

When the Divorce Bill, which originated in 
the Lords, came up in the Commons, Mr. Glad- 
stone made an impassioned speech against the 
measure, contending for the equality of woman 
with man in all the rights pertaining to mar- 
riage. He dealt with the question on theological, 
legal and social grounds. He contended that 
marriage was not only or chiefly a civil contract,, 
but a ^'mystery" of the Christian religion. By 
the law of God it could not be so annulled as to 
permit of the re-marriage of the parties. " Our 
Lord," he says, "has emphatically told us that, 
at and from the beginning, marriage was per- 
petual, and was on both sides single," He dwelt 
with pathetic force on the injustice between man 
and woman of the proposed legislation, which 
would entitle the husband to divorce from an un- 
faithful wife, but would give no corresponding pro- 
tection to the woman ; and predicted the gloomiest 
consequences to the conjugal morality of the 
country from the erection of this new and odious 
tribunal. Nevertheless the bill became a law. 



In Opposition to the Government 351 

In 1858 a bill was introduced in the House 
of Commons by Lord Palmerston,.to make con- 
spiracy to murder a felony. It grew out of tlie 
attempt of Orsini upon the life of Napoleon III. 
The bill at first was carried by an immense 
majority, but the conviction spread that the 
measure was introduced solely at the dictation of 
the French Emperor, and hence the proposal 
was strongly opposed. Mr. Gladstone said: 
" These times are grave for liberty. We live in 
the nineteenth century ; we talk of progress ; 
we believe we are advancing, but can any man 
of observation who has watched the events of the 
last few years in Europe have failed to perceive 
that there is a movement indeed, but a downward 
and backward movement ? There are few spots 
in which institutions that claim our sympathy 
still exist and flourish. * * * But in these 
times more than ever does responsibility centre 
upon the institutions of England, and if it does 
centre upon England, upon her principles, upon 
her laws and upon her governors, then I say that 
a measure passed by this House of Commons — 
the chief hope of freedom — which attempts to 
establish a moral complicity between us and 
those who seek safety in repressive measures, 
will be a blow and a discouragement to that 
sacred cause in every country in the world." 

The bill was defeated by a majority of nine- 
teen, and Lord Palmerston again resigned. He 



352 William E. Gladstone 

was succeeded by Lord Derby, wbo once more 
came into power. Mr. Disraeli again became 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, aiid leader o£ the 
House of Commons. The new ministry, which 
existed largely on sufferance, passed some good 
measures. 

The one hundredth anniversary of the 
battle of Plassey was celebrated in England 
June 23, 1857, to obtain funds for a .monument 
to Lord Clive, who secured India to England. 
The English then felt secure in the government 
of that land, yet at that very time one of the 
most wide-spread, destructive and cruel rebellions 
was raging, and shaking to its very foundations 
the English rule in Hindostan. Suddenly the 
news came of the terrible Indian mutiny and of 
the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and 
children, filling all hearts with horror, and then 
of the crushing out of the rebellion. Lord Can- 
ning, Governor-General, issued a proclamation 
to the chiefs of Oudh, looking to the confiscation 
of the possessions of mutineers who failed to 
return to the allegiance of England. It was 
meant as clemency. But Lord Ellenborough, the 
officer in charge of affairs in India, dispatched " a 
rattling condemnation of the whole proceeding." 
Says Justin McCarthy : "It was absurd language 
for a rhan like Lord Ellenborough to address to 
a statesman like Lord Canning, who had just 
succeeded in keeping the fabric of English 



In Opposition to the Government 353 

government in India togetHer during the most 
terrible trial ever imposed on it by fate." The 
matter was taken up by Parliament. Lord 
Shaftesbury moved that the Lords disprove the 
sending of the dispatch. In the Commons the 
ministry were arraigned. But Lord Ellenbor- 
ough took upon himself the sole responsibility of 
the dispatch, and resigned. Mr. Gladstone was 
invited to the vacant place, but declined. 

The most important among the bills passed 
by Parliament was the India Bill, by which the 
government of India was transferred from ^ the 
East India Company to the Crown and the Home 
government. Mr. Gladstone, who opposed the 
bill, proposed a clause providing that the Indian 
troops should not be employed in military opera- 
tions beyond the frontiers of India. 

In November, 1858, Mr. Gladstone accepted 
from the Premier the post of Lord High Com- 
missioner Extraordinary to the Ionian Islands. 
The people of the Ionian Islands, which in 1800 
was formed into the Republic of the Seven 
Islands, and was under the protection of Great 
Britain from 181 5, were desirous of adding them- 
selves to Greece. But the British government 
objected to the separation and their union with 
Greece. Mr. Gladstone was to repair to Corfu 
for the purpose of reconciling the people to the 
British protectorate. The lonians regarded his 
appointment as a virtual abandonment of the 



354 William E. Gladstone 

protectorate of Great Britain. Mr. Gladstone, 
December 3d, addressed the Senate at Corfu in 
Italian. He had the reputation of being a Greek 
student, and the inhabitants of the Islands per- 
sisted in regarding him not as a Commissioner 
of a Conservative English Government, but as 
" Gladstone the Phil-Hellene ! " He made a tour 
of the Islands, holding levees, receiving deputa- 
tions and delivering harangues, and was received 
wherever he went with the honors due to a 
liberator. His path everywhere was made to 
seem like a triumphal progress. It was in vain 
he repeated his assurance that he came to recon- 
cile them to the protectorate and not to deliver 
them from it. But the popular instinct insisted 
upon regarding him as at least the precursor of 
their union with the Kingdom of Greece. The 
legislative assembly met January 27, 1859, and 
proposed annexation to Greece. Finding that 
this was their firm wish and determination, 
Mr. Gladstone despatched to the Queen a copy 
of the vote, in which the representatives declared 
that "the single and unanimous will of the 
Ionian people has been and is for their union 
with the Kingdom of Greece." Mr. Gladstone 
returned home in February, 1859. The lonians 
continued their agitation, and in 1864 were 
formally given over to the government of Greece. 
Parliament was opened February 3, 1859, 
by the Queen, who in her speech from the throne 



In Opposition to the Government 355 

said tliat the attention of Parliament wonld be 
called to the state of the law regulating the 
representation of the people. The plan of the 
government was presented by Mr. Disraeli. " It 
was a fanciful performance," says an English 
writer. '' The ministry proposed not to alter the 
limits of the franchise, but to introduce into 
boroughs a new kind of franchise founded on 
personal property. Mr. Disraeli characterized 
the government measure as '' wise, prudent, 
adequate, conservative, and framed by men who 
reverence the past, are proud of the present, and 
confident of the future." Two members of the 
Cabinet promptly resigned rather than be parties 
to these proposals. Mr. Bright objected because 
the working classes were excluded. An amend- 
ment was moved by Lord John Russell con- 
demning interference with the franchise which 
enabled freeholders in boroughs to vote in 
counties, and demanding a wider extension of 
the suffrage in boroughs. 

Mr. Gladstone, though agreeing with these 
views, declined to support the amendment, be- 
cause, if carried, it would upset the government 
and bring in a weaker administration. He did 
not propose to support the government, but he 
desired to see a settlement of the question of 
reform, and he thought the present opportunity 
advantageous for such settlement. He pleaded 
eloquently for the retention of the small boroughs. 



356 William E. Gladstone 

The bill was lost by a majority of tbirty- 
nine. Lord Derby having advised the Queen to 
dissolve Parliament, this was done April 3d. 
The general elections which resulted from the 
defeat of the Conservatives in the House of 
Commons on the Reform Bill, resulted in return- 
ing the Liberals with a considerable majority. 
Mr. Gladstone was again returned unopposed for 
the University of Oxford. The Queen opened 
the new Parliament June 7th. In reply to the 
speech from the throne an amendment to the 
address was moved by Lord Hartington, propos- 
ing a vote of want of confidence in the ministers. 
After three nights debate it was carried on 
June loth, by a majority of thirteen, Mr. Glad- 
stone voting with the government. Lord Derby 
and his colleagues immediately resigned. The 
Queen being averse to choosing between Lord 
John Russell and Lord Palmerston, turned to 
Lord Granville, leader of the Liberal party in 
the House of Lords. He failed to form a Cabi- 
net, and Lord Palmerston again became Prime 
Minister. 

The revolution of the political wheel once 
more brought Mr. Gladstone into office as 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. It became neces- 
sary in accepting a Cabinet position to again 
appeal to his constituents at Oxford for re-elec- 
tion. He voted as he did to sustain Lord Derby's 
administration and to settle the Reform question, 



IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT 357 

yet he was misunderstood and some of His con- 
stituents alienated. He was strongly opposed by 
the Conservative Marquis of Chandos. The 
Conservatives claimed that lie should not be 
returned, because, as Professor Mansel said, by 
his "acceptance of office he must now be con- 
sidered as giving his definite adhesion to the 
Liberal party, as at present reconstructed, and 
as approving of the policy of those who overthrew 
Lord Derby's government." It was found on 
the conclusion of the poll, which continued for 
five days, that Mr. Gladstone was returned with 
a majority of nearly two hundred over his 
opponent. It is worthy of note that this same 
year Cambridge conferred upon Mr. . Gladstone 
the honorary degree of D. C. L. 




CHAPTER XII 

Homeric Studies 

//^^■^HE plenitude and variety of Mr. Glad« 
^ J stone's intellectual powers," says G. 
^^r Barnett Smith, "have been the subject 

of such frequent comment that it would 
be superfluous to insist upon them 
here. On the political side of his career his life 
has been as unresting and active as that of any 
other great party leader, and if we regard him in 
the literary aspect we are equally astonished at 
his energy and versatility. Putting out of view 
his various works upon Homer, his miscellaneous 
writings of themselves, with the reading they 
involve, would entitle their author to take high 
rank on the score of industry. * * * "We 
stand amazed at the infinity of topics which 
have received Mr. Gladstone's attention." 

To solve the problems associated with Homer 
has been the chief intellectual recreation, the close 
and earnest study of Mr. Gladstone's literary life. 
" The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle " pos- 
sessed for him an irresistible and a perennial 
358 



Homeric Studies 359 

m 

charm. Nor can this occasion surprise, for all 
who have given themselves up to the considera- 
tion and attempted solution of the Homeric 
poems have found the fascination of the occupa- 
tion gather in intensity. It is not alone from 
the poetic point of view that the first great epic 
of the world attracts students of all ages and of 
all countries. Homer presents, in addition, and 
beyond every other writer, a vast field for ethno- 
logical, geographical, and historical speculation 
and research. The ancient world stands re- 
vealed in the Homeric poems. Besides, almost 
numberless volumes have been written based 
upon the equally debatable questions of the 
Homeric text and the Homeric unity. 

Some literary works of Mr. Gladstone have 
been already noticed. " Studies on Homer and 
Homeric Age " shows Mr. Gladstone's classic 
tastes and knowledge as well as his great indus- 
try and ability. This work was published in 
three volumes, in 1858. It is his magnum opus 
in literature, and exhibits wide and laborious 
research. " It discusses the Homeric contro- 
versy in its broad aspects, the relation of Homer 
to the Sacred Writings, his place in education, 
his historic aims, the probable period of the poet's 
life, the Homeric text, the ethnology of the Greek 
races, and the politics and poetry of Homer. 
Among subsequent Greek studies by Mr. Glad- 
stone were his ^ Juventus Mundi ' and the 



360 WcLLiAM E. Gladstone 

* Homeric SyncHronism.' There is probably no 
greater living authority on the text of Homer 
than Mr. Gladstone, and the Ancient Greek race 
and literature have exercised over him a per- 
ennial fascination." 

Mr. Gladstone dwells much on the relation 
of Homer to Christianity. " The standard of 
humanity of the Greek poet is different, yet 
many of his ideas almost carry us back to the 
early morning of our race ; the hours of its greater 
simplicity and puiity, and more free intercourse 
with God. * * * How is it possible to over- 
value this primitive representation of the human 
race in a form complete, distinct and separate, 
with its own religion, stories, policy, history, 
arts, manners, fresh and true to the standard of 
its nature, like the form of an infant from the 
hand of the Creator, yet mature, full, and 
finished, in its own sense, after its own laws, 
like some masterpiece of the sculptor's art ? " 
The Homeric scene of action is not Paradise, 
but it is just as far removed from the vices of 
«, later heathenism. 

Mr. Gladstone compares the ^' Iliad" and the 
'' Odyssey," which he believed to be the poems of 
one poet, Homer, with the Old Testament writ- 
ings, and observes that " Homer can never be put 
into competition with the Scriptures as touching 
the great fundamental, invaluable code of truth 
and hope ; " but he shows how one may in a sense 








Gladstone and His Granddaughter, Dorothy Drew. 



HOMERIC Studies 363 

be supplementary to the other. As regards the 
history of the Greek race, it is Homer that 
furnishes ''the point of origin from which all 
distances are to be measured." He says : ''The 
Mosaic books, and the other historical books 
of the Old Testament, are not intended to pre- 
sent, and do not present, a picture of human 
society or of our nature drawn at large. The 
poems of Homer may be viewed as the com- 
plement of the earliest portion of the sacred 
records." 

Again : " The Holy Scriptures are like a 
thin stream, beginning from the very fountain- 
head of our race, and gradually, but continuously, 
finding their way through an extended solitude 
into times otherwise known, and into the general 
current of the fortunes of mankind. The Homeric 
poems are like a broad lake, outstretched in the 
distance, which provides us with a mirror of one 
particular age and people, alike full and marvel- 
ous, but which is entirely disassociated by a 
period of many generations from any other 
records, except such as are of the most partial 
and fragmentary kind. In respect of the in- 
fluence which they have respectively exercised 
upon mankind, it might appear almost profane 
to compare them. In this point of view the 
Scriptures stand so far apart from every other 
production, on account of their great offices in 
relation to the coming of the Redeemer and to 



364 William E. Gladstone 

the spiritual training of mankind, tHat there can 
be nothing either like or second to them." 

Mr, Gladstone thinks that ^' the poems of 
Homer possess extrinsic worth as a faithful 
and vivid picture of early Grecian life and 
measures ; they have also an intrinsic value 
which has given their author the first place in 
that marvelous trinity of genius — Homer, Dante, 
and Shakespeare." 

As to the historic aims of Homer, Mr. Glad- 
stone says : " Where other poets sketch. Homer 
draws; and where they draw he carves. He 
alone of all the now famous epic writers, moves 
(in the " Iliad " especially) subject to the stricter 
laws of time and place ; he alone, while producing 
an unsurpassed work of the imagination, is also 
the greatest chronicler that ever lived, and pre- 
sents to us, from his own single hand, a represen- 
tation of life, manners, history, of morals, the- 
ology, and politics, so vivid and comprehensive, 
that it may be hard to say whether any of the 
more refined ages of Greece or Rome, with their 
clouds of authors and their multiplied forms of 
historical record, are either niore faithfully or 
more completely conveyed to us." 

Mr. Gladstone fixes the probable date of 
Homer within a generation or two of the Trojan 
war, assigning as his principal reason for so 
doing the poet's visible identity with the age, 
the altering but not yet vanishing age of which 



Homeric Studies 365 

he sings, and tHe broad interval in tone and 
feeling between bimself and the very nearest of 
all tliat follow him. He presents several argu- 
ments to prove the trustworthiness of the text 
of Homer. 

In 1877, Mr. Gladstone wrote an article on 
the ^'Dominions of the Odysseus/' and also 
wrote a preface to Dr. Henry Schliemann's 
'' Mycense." 

One of his most remarkable productions 
bore the title of, " The Vatican Decrees in their 
Bearing on Civil Allegiance ; a Political Expos- 
tulation." This book was an amplification of 
an article from his own pen, which appeared 
October, 1874, in the Contemporary Review, It 
created great public excitement and many replies. 
One hundred and twenty thousand copies were 
sold. Mr. Higginson says : ^'The vigor of the 
style, the learning exhibited, and the source 
whence it came, all contributed to give it an 
extraordinary influence. * * * It was boldly 
proclaimed in this pamphlet that, since 1870, 
Rome has substituted for the proud boast of 
semper eadem^ a policy of violence and change 
of faith J * * * < that she had equally repu- 
diated modern thought and ancient history ; ' * * * 
^ that she has reburnished and paraded anew 
every rusty tool she was thought to have dis- 
used,' and ^ that Rome requires a convert who 
now joins her to forfeit his moral and mental 



366 William E. Gladstone 

freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty 
at the mercy of another.' " 

Mr. Gladstone issued another pamphlet, 
entitled " Vaticanism ; and Answers to Reproofs 
and Replies." He reiterated his original charges, 
saying: *^The Vatican decrees do, in the strictest 
sense, establish for the Pope a supreme command 
over loyalty and civil duty. * * * Even in 
those parts of Christendom where the decrees 
and the present attitude of the Papal See do not 
produce or aggravate open broils with the civil 
power, by undermining moral liberty, they 
impair moral responsibility, and silently, in the 
succession of generations, if not in the lifetime 
of individuals, tend to emasculate the vigor of 
the mind." 

Mr. Gladstone published in seven volumes, 
in 1879, ^^ Gleanings of Past Years." The essa}^ 
entitled ^' Kin Beyond the Sea " at first created 
much excitement. " The Kin Beyond the Sea " 
was America, of which he says : '' She will 
probably become what we are now, the head 
servant in the great household of the world, the 
employer of all employed ; because her services 
will be the most and ablest." Again: "The 
England and the America of the present are prob- 
ably the two strongest nations in the world. But 
there can hardly be a doubt, as between the 
America and the England of the future, that the 
daughter, at sonje no very distant time, will, 



Homeric Studies 367 

whether fairer or less fair, be unquestionably 
yet stronger than the mother." Mr. Gladstone 
argues in support of this position from the con- 
centrated continuous empire which America pos- 
sesses, and the enormous progress she has made 
within a century. 

In an address at the opening of the Art 
Loan Exhibition of Chester, August 11, 1879, 
Mr. Gladstone said : " With the English those 
two things are quite distinct ; but in the oldest 
times of human industry — that is to say amongst 
the Greeks — there was no separation whatever, 
no gap at all, between the idea of beauty and the 
idea of utility. Whatever the ancient Greek 
produced he made as useful as he could ; and at 
the same time a cardinal law with him was to 
make it as beautiful as he could. In the in- 
dustrial productions of America there is very 
little idea of beauty ; for example, an Ameri- 
can's axe is not intended to cut away a 
tree neatly, but quickly. We want a workman 
to understand that if he can learn to appreciate 
beauty in industrial productions, he is thereby 
doing good to himself, first of all in the improve- 
ment of his mind, and in the pleasure he derives 
from his work, and likewise that literally he is 
increasing his own capital, which is his labor." 

In his articles on " Ecce Homo " he expresses 
the hope " that the present tendency to treat the 
old belief of man with a precipitate, shallow, and 



368 



WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 



unexamining disparagement, is simply a dis- 
temper, that inflicts for a time the moral atmo- 
sphere, that is due, like plagues and fevers, to our 
own previous folly and neglect; and that when 
it has served its work of admonition and reform, 
will be allowed to pass away." 

The "Impregnable Rock of Holy Scrip- 
ture" is the title of a book by Mr. Gladstone, 
the articles of which were originally published in 
The Sunday School Time$, Philadelphia. 




MR. GLADSTONE'S A^1«V 



CHAPTER XIII 

Great Budgets 

^^^HE year i860 marked the beginning of 

^ J the second half of Mr. Gladstone's life 

^j^r as a statesman, in which he stood 

prominently forward as a Reformer. 

Jnly 18, 1859, as Chancellor in the 

Liberal government of Lord Palmerston, he 

bronght forward his budget. The budget of i860 

was the greatest of all his financial measures, for 

a new departure was taken in British commerce 

and manufactures. Mr. Cobden, in behalf of the 

English Government, had negotiated with France 

a treaty based on free trade principles — " a treaty 

which gave an impetus to the trade of this 

country, whose far-reaching effects are felt even 

to our day." 

The Chancellor explained the various propo- 
sitions of his financial statements. Speaking 
of discontent with the income tax he observed : 
" I speak on general terms. Indeed, I now 
remember that I myself had, about a fortnight 
ago, a letter addressed to me complaining of the 

369 



370 William E. GLADSTONii 

monstrous injustice and iniquity of tlie income 
tax, and proposing that, in consideration thereof, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be 
publicly hanged." 

Mr. Gladstone said that the total reduction 
of duties would be over ;^ 1,000,000, requiring a 
slight extension of taxation ; that by this means 
nearly ^1,000,000 would be returned to the 
general revenue ; that the loss to the revenue by 
the French Treaty, which was based upon free 
trade principles, and the reduction of duties, 
would be half made up by the imposts specified ; 
that the abolition of the paper duty would pro- 
duce the happiest results from the spread of 
cheap literature. The reductions proposed would 
give a total relief to the consumer of nearly 
;^4,ooo,ooo, and cause a net loss of the revenue 
of over ^2,000,000, a sum about equivalent to 
the amount coming in from the cessation of 
government annuities that year. The total 
revenue was ^70,564,000, and as the total 
expenses of government was ;^70,ooo,ooo, there 
remained an estimated surplus of ^464,000, 

Mr. Gladstone concluded : '' There were 
times, now long by, when sovereigns made pro- 
gress through the land, and when at the procla- 
mation of their heralds, they caused to be scat- 
tered whole showers of coin among the people 
who thronged upon their steps. * * * Our 
Sovereign is enabled, through the wisdom of her 



GREAT BUDGETS 371 

great council, assembled in Parliament around 
her, again to scatter blessings among ber sub- 
jects by means of wise and prudent laws; of laws 
whicb do not sap in any respect tbe foundations 
of duty or of manbood, but which strike away 
the shackles from the arm of industry." 

^^ It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Glad- 
stone's budget addresses that they roused curiosity 
in the outset, and, being delivered in a musical, 
sonorous, and perfectly modulated voice, kept the 
listeners interested to the very close. This 
financial statement of i860 was admirably 
arranged for the purpose of awakening and keep- 
ing attention, piquing and teasing curiosity, and 
sustaining desire to hear from the first sentence 
to the last. It was not a speech, it was an 
oration, in the form of a great State paper, made 
eloquent, in which there was a proper restraint 
over the crowding ideas, the most exact accuracy in 
the sentences, and even in the very words chosen ; 
the most perfect balancing of parts, and, more 
than all, there were no errors or omissions ; noth- 
ing was put wrongly and nothing was overlooked. 
With a House crowded in every corner, with the 
strain upon his own mental faculties, and the 
great physical tax implied in the management of 
his voice, and the necessity for remaining upon 
his feet during this long period, ' the observed of 
all observers,' Mr. Gladstone took all as quietly, 
we are told, as if he had just risen to address a 



372 William E. Gladstone 

few observations to Mr. Speaker. Indeed, it was 
laughingly said that lie could address a House 
for a whole week, and on the Friday evening 
have taken a new departure, beginning with the 
observation, ' After these preliminary remarks, I 
will now proceed to deal with the subject matter 
of my financial plan.' " 

The ministry was supported by large ma- 
jorities, and carried their measures, but when 
the bill for the repeal of the duty on paper at 
home, as well as coming into the country, came 
before the House of Lords, it was rejected. 
Mr. Gladstone appeared to be confronted by the 
greatest constitutional crisis of his life. He 
gave vent to his indignation, and declared that 
the action of the Lords was a gigantic innovation, 
and that the House of Commons had the un- 
doubted right of selecting the manner in which 
the people should be taxed. This speech was 
pronounced by Lord John Russell " magnificently 
mad," and Lord Granville said that " it was a 
toss-up whether Gladstone resigned or not, and 
that if he did it would break up the Liberal 
party." Quiet was finally restored, and the 
following year Mr. Gladstone adroitly brought 
the same feature before the Lords in a way 
that^ compelled acceptance. 

The budget of 1861 showed a surplus of 
;^2, 000,000 over the estimated surplus, and pro- 
posed to remit the penny on the income tax, and 



Great Budgets 373 

to repeal tlie paper duty. Instead of being divided 
into several bills as in tbe previous year, tbe 
budget was presented as a whole — all included 
in one. By this device the Lords were forced 
to acquiesce in the repeal of the paper duty, 
or take the responsibility of rejecting the 
whole bill. The Peers grumbled, and some of 
them were enraged. Lord Robert Cecil, now 
Marquis of Salisbury, rudely declared that 
Mr. Gladstone's conduct was only worthy of an 
attorney. He begged to apologize to the attor- 
neys. They were honorable men and would have 
scorned the course pursued by the ministers. 
Another member of the House of Lords protested 
that the budget gave a mortal stab to the Con- 
stitution. Mr. Gladstone retorted : "I want to 
know, to what Constitution does it give a mortal 
stab ? In my opinion it gives no mortal stab, and 
no stab at all, to any Constitution that we are 
bound to care for. But, on the contrary, so far 
as it alters anything in the most recent course 
of practice, it alters in the direction of restoring 
that good old Constitution which took its root in 
Saxon times, which grew from the Plantagenets, 
which endured the iron repression of the Tudors, 
which resisted the aggressions of the Stuarts, and 
which has come to its full maturity under the 
House of Brunswick. I think that is the Con- 
stitution, if I may presume to say so, which it is 
our duty to guard, and which — if, indeed, the 



374 William E. Gladstone 

proceedings of tHis year can be said to affect it at 
all — will be all the better for the operation. But 
the Constitution which my right honorable friend 
worships is a very different affair." 

In i860, Mr. Gladstone was elected Lord 
Rector of Edinburgh University, and the degree 
of LL. D. was conferred upon him. 

Mr. Gladstone, in 1861, introduced one of 
his most beneficial measures — a bill creating the 
Post Office Savings Bank. The success of the 
scheme has gone beyond all expectation. At 
the close of 1891, the amount deposited was 
^71,608,002, and growing at the average rate 
of over ^4,000,000 annually. 

Mr. Gladstone's financial measures for 1862, 
while not involving such momentous issues as 
those of the preceding year, nevertheless en- 
countered considerable opposition. The budget 
was a stationary one, with no surplus, no new 
taxes, no remission of taxes, no heavier burdens. 

In October, 1862, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone 
made a journey down the Tyne, which is thus 
described : ^' It was not possible to show to royal 
visitors more demonstrations of honor than were 
showered on the illustrious Commoner and his 
wife. * * * At every point, at every bank 
and hill and factory, in every opening where 
people could stand or climb, expectant crowds 
awaited Mr. Gladstone's arrival. Women and 
children, in all costumes and of all conditions, 



Great budgets 375 

lined tlie shores * * * as Mr. and Mrs. Glad- 
stone passed. Cannon boomed from every point ; 
* * * sucli a succession of cannonading never 
before greeted a triumphant conqueror on the 
march." 

It was during this journey that Mr. Glad- 
stone made the memorable speech, at New 
Castle, upon the American Civil War, which had 
broken out the same year. There had been 
much speculation as to whether the English 
government would recognize the Confederacy as 
a separate and independent power, and the 
utterance of a member of the Cabinet under the 
circumstances was regarded as entirely unwar- 
ranted. Mr. Gladstone himself frankly ac- 
knowledged his error in 1867 • " I must confess 
that I was wrong ; that I took too much upon 
myself in expressing such an opinion. Yet the 
motive was not bad. My sympathies were then — 
where they had long before been, .where they are 
now — with the whole American people." 

The session of 1863 was barren of important 
subjects of debate, and hence unusual interest 
was centered in the Chancellor's statement, 
which was another masterly financial presenta- 
tion, and its leading propositions were cordially 
received. The whole reduction of taxation for 
the year was ^3,340,000, or counting the total 
reductions, present and prospective, of ^4,601,- 
CKX), This still left a surplus of ^400,000. 



376 William E. Gladstone 

In four years ^8,000,000 liad been paid for 
war with. China out of the ordinary revenues. 
A proposition to subject charities to the income 
tax, although endorsed by the whole cabinet, 
led to such powerful opposition throughout the 
country that it was finally withdrawn. The 
arguments of the Chancellor were endorsed by 
many who were opposed to the indiscriminate 
and mistaken beneficence which was so prevalent 
on death-beds. 

A bill was introduced at this session by 
Sir Morton Peto, entitled the " Dissenters' Burial 
Bill," the object of which was to enable Non- 
conformists to have their own religious rites and 
services, and by their own ministers, in the 
graveyards of the Established Church. The bill 
was strongly opposed by Lord Robert Cecil and 
Mr. Disraeli. Mr. Gladstone favored the meas- 
ure. The bill was rejected, and Mr. Gladstone 
at a later period discovered that his progress in 
ecclesiastical and political opinions was creating 
a breach, between himself and his constituents 
at Oxford. 

Mr. Gladstone's financial scheme for 1864 
was received with undiminished interest. It was 
characterized as " a policy of which, peace, prog- 
ress and retrenchment were the watchwords." 
An available surplus of ^^2, 2 60,000 enabled him 
to propose reductions. 



Great budgets 377 

« 

The subject of reform, whicli had been com- 
ing up in the House of Commons in one way 
or another and agitating the House and the 
country since 1859, when the Conservative party 
was beaten on the question, reappeared in 1864. 
The question of lowering the borough franchise 
came up, and Mr. Gladstone startled the House 
and the country by his declaration upon the subject 
of reform, which showed the rapid development 
of his views upon the subject. The Conservative 
party was filled with alarm, and the hopes of the 
Reform party correspondingly elated. " The 
eyes of all Radical Reformers turned to Mr. 
Gladstone as the future Minister of Reform in 
Church and State. He became from the same 
moment an object of distrust, and something 
approaching to detestation in the eyes of all 
steady-going Conservatives." 

Mr. Gladstone said : ^' I say that every man 
who is not presentably incapacitated by some 
consideration of personal unfitness or political 
danger, is morally entitled to come within the 
pale of the constitution." This declaration was 
the first note sounded in a conflict which, twelve 
months later, was to cost Mr. Gladstone his seat 
for Oxford University, and finally to culminate in 
the disruption of the Liberal Government. The 
general feeling in regard to this speech was that 
if the Liberal party had failed in its duty on the 
subject of reform in the existing Parliament after 



378 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone's utterances, that the condition of 
things must undergo a change, so great was the 
effect of his speech in the country. The bill, 
which was presented by a private member and 
lost, was made memorable by the speech of the 
Chancellor. The eyes of careful political leaders 
were again turned towards Mr. Gladstone, and 
strong predictions made of his coming exaltation 
to the Premiership. Mr. Speaker Denison said, 
in October, 1864: ''I now anticipate that Mr. 
Gladstone will be Premier. Neither party has 
any leader. I hope Mr. Gladstone may get sup- 
port from the Conservatives who now support 
Palmerston." And these expectations were 
kown to Mr. Gladstone himself, for Bishop Wil- 
berforce had a conversation with him and writes ; 
^^ Long talk with Gladstone as to Premiership : 
he is for acting under John Russell." Again to 
Mr. Gladstone : " Anything which breaks up, or 
tends to break up, Palmerston's supremacy, must 
bring you nearer to the post in which I long to 
see you, and, if I live, shall see you." Lord 
Palmers ton himself said : " Gladstone will soon 
have it all his own way ; and whenever he gets 
my place we shall have strange things." 

The hostile feeling towards the Palmerston 
government, which had been growing in intensity, 
chiefly on the ground of its foreign policy, reached 
its full height in a fierce battle between the 
Ministry and the Opposition. July 4, 1864, 



Great Budgets 381 

Mr. Disraeli brought forward his motion of "no 
confidence." Mr. Gladstone replied for the gov- 
ernment, and sought to rebut the accusations 
made by the leader of the Opposition. He said 
that it was the very first time in which the House 
of Commons had been called upon to record the 
degradation of the country, simply for the sake 
of displacing a ministry. 

An amusing episode which occurred during 
this debate is worthy of record here ; Mr. Bernard 
Osborne " grew amusingly sarcastic at the ex- 
pense of the government, though he paid at 
the same time a great compliment to Mr. Glad- 
stone. He likened the Cabinet to a museum of 
curiosities, in which there were some birds of 
rare and noble plumage, both alive and stuffed. 
There had been a difficulty, unfortunately, 
in keeping up the breed, and it was found neces- 
sary to cross it with the famous Peelites. ^ I will 
do them the justice to say that they have a very 
great and noble Minister among them in the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it is to his 
measures alone that they owe the little popu- 
larity and the little support they get from this 
Liberal party. ^ Describing Mr. Milner Gibson, 
the honorable gentleman said he was like some 
^ fly in amber, ^ and the wonder was ^ how the 
devil he got there.' Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright 
must have been disappointed in this ^ young man 
from the Qountry,' H§ h^d b^coine iusol^ijt ^ni 



382 William E. Gladstone 

almost quarrelsome under the guidance of tlie 
noble lord. Should that Parliament decide on 
terminating its own and their existence, they 
would find consolation that the funeral oration 
would be pronounced by Mr. Newdegate, and that 
some friendly hand would inscribe on their mau- 
soleum, ^ Rest and be thankful.' " Mr. Disraeli's 
motion was lost, and the ministry was sustained. 
The budget of 1865 represented the country 
as in a prosperous financial condition. The total 
reduction was over ;^5, 000,000. Such a financial 
showing gained the warm approval of the people, 
and excited but little opposition in the House. 
It was evident that a master-hand was guiding 
the national finances, and fortunately the Chan- 
cellor's calculations were verified by the contin- 
ued prosperity of the country. At a later period, 
in commenting upon the policy of the two parties 
— Conservative and Liberal — Mr. Gladstone said : 
" From thence it follows that the policy of the 
Liberal party has been to reduce the public 
charges and to keep the expenditure within the 
estimates, and, as a result, to diminish the tax- 
ation of the country and the national debt ; that 
the policy of the Tory government, since they 
took office in 1866, has been to increase the public 
charges, and to allow the departments to spend 
more than their estimates, and, as a result, to create 
deficits and to render the reduction of taxation im- 
possible, Which policy will the country prefer ? " 




CHAPTER XIV 
Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 

|ULY, 1865, Parliament having run its 
allotted course, according to the consti- 
tution, was dissolved, and a general 
election took place, which resulted in 
the Liberal party being returned again 
with a majority. Mr. Gladstone's relations with 
many of his constituents were not harmonious, 
owing to his pronounced Liberal views, and his 
seat for Oxford was seriously imperilled. Mr. 
Gathorne Hardy was nominated to run against 
him. The High Tory party resolved to defeat 
him, and he was defeated by a majority of 
180. " The electors preferred the uncompromis- 
ing defender of the Church and Toryism to the 
brilliant statesman and financier." Almost all 
of the distinguished residents of Oxford and 
three-fourths of the tutors and lecturers of the 
University voted for Mr. Gladstone, and his 
rejection was entirely owing to the opposing 
vote of non-residents and the bigotry of the 
hostile country clergymen of the Church of 

383 



384 William E. Gladstone 

England. From the Bishop of Oxford Mr. 
Gladstone received the following indignant 
protest : 

" I cannot forbear expressing to you my 
grief and indignation at the result. It is need- 
less for me to say that everything I could with 
propriety do I did heartily to save our University 
this great loss and dishonor, as well from a loving 
honor of you. You were too great for them." 

" The enemies of the University," observed 
the Times ^ " will make the most of her disgrace. 
It has hitherto been supposed that a learned 
constituency was to some extent exempt from 
the vulgar motives of party spirit, and capable of 
forming a higher estimate of statesmanship than 
common tradesmen or tenant-farmers." 

His valedictory address to his former con- 
stituents was short : " After an arduous con- 
nection of eighteen years, I bid you, respectfully, 
farewell. * * * It is one imperative duty, 
and one alone, which induces me to trouble you 
with these few parting words, the duty of expres- 
sing my profound and lasting gratitude for 
indulgence as generous, and for support as warm 
and enthusiastic in itself, and as honorable from 
the character and distinctions of those who have 
given it, as has, in my belief, ever been accorded 
by any constituency to any representative." 

One event in Parliament, in 1865, ^^^" 
tributed much to Mr. Gladstone's defeat: lu 



Liberal reformer and Prime Minister 38$ 

Marcli, 1865, Mr. Dillwyn, the Radical member 
for Swansea, moved "that the present position of 
the Irish Church Establishment is unsatisfactory, 
and calls for the early attention of her Majesty's 
Government." 

Sir Stafford Northcote wrote : " Gladstone 
made a terribly long stride in his downward prog- 
ress last night, and denounced the Irish Church 
in a way which shows how, by and by, he will deal 
not only with it, but with the Church of England 
too. * * * He laid down the doctrines that 
the tithe was national property, and ought to be 
dealt with by the State in a manner most advan- 
tageous to the people ; and that the Church of 
England was only national because the majority 
of the people still belong to her." 

" It was now felt that henceforth Mr. Glad- 
stone must belong to the country, and not to 
the University." He realized this himself, for 
driven from Oxford, he went down to South 
Lancashire, seeking to be returned from there 
to Parliament, and in the Free Trade Hall, Man- 
chester, said : "At last, my friends, I am come 
among you, and I am come among you unmuz- 
zled." These words were greeted with loud and 
prolonged applause. The advanced Liberals 
seemed to take the same view, and regarded 
Mr. Gladstone's defeat at Oxford by the Con- 
servatives as his political enfranchisement. His 
defeat was not wholly unexpected to himself. 



386 William E. Gladstone 

In i860 lie said : " Without having to com- 
plain, I am entirely sick and weary of tlie terms 
upon wliicli I hold the seat." 

Mr. Gladstone felt keenly the separation, 
for he wrote to the Bishop of Oxford: "There 
have been two great deaths, or transmigrations 
of spirit, in my political existence — one, very 
slow, the breaking of ties with my original party, 
the other, very short and sharp, the breaking of 
the tie with Oxford. There will probably be a 
third, and no more." And in a speech at Liver- 
pool, there was something of pathos in his 
reference to Oxford, when he said that if he 
had clung to the representation of the University 
with desperate fondness, it was because he would 
not desert a post to which he seemed to have 
been called. But he had now been dismissed 
from it, not by academical, but by political 
agencies. 

Mr. Gladstone was elected to represent his 
native district in Parliament, and he was at the 
head of the poll in Manchester, Liverpool, and 
all the large towns. The result of the general 
elections was a considerable gain to the Libera] 
party, but that party sustained a severe loss by 
the death of Lord Palmerston, October 18, 1865. 

A new cabinet was constructed, with Ear] 
Russell as Premier, and Mr, Gladstone as the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Gladstone 
became for the first time the recognized leadei 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 387 

in the House of Commons, which then meant 
virtually Prime Minister, for with the aged 
Premier in the House of Lords, and the youthful 
Chancellor in the Commons, it meant nothing 
else. But Earl Russell and his younger col- 
league were calculated to work in harmonious 
action, for they were both Reformers. The 
ardent temperament and the severe conscien- 
tiousness of the leader was the cause of much 
speculation and anxiety as to his management. 
His first appearance as leader of the House was 
therefore waited for with much curiosity. The 
new Parliament was opened February 6, 1866, by 
the Queen in person, for the first time since the 
death of Prince Albert. In the speech from the 
throne it was announced that Parliament would 
be directed to consider such improvements in the 
laws which regulate the right of voting in the 
election of the members of the House of Com- 
mons as may tend to strengthen our free insti- 
tutions, and conduce to the public welfare. 
Bishop Wilberforce wrote : " Gladstone has risen 
entirely to his position, and done all his most 
sanguine friends hoped for as leader. * * ={= 
There is a general feeling of insecurity of the 
ministry, and the Reform Bill to be launched 
to-night is thought a bad rock." 

May 3, 1866, Mr. Gladstone brought forward 
what was destined to be his last budget for some 
years. There was a surplus of over a million 



388 William E. Gladstone 

and a quarter of pounds, wliicli allowed a further 
and considerable reduction of taxation. 

The condition of Ireland was very grave at 
this time, and as apprehensions were felt in 
regard to the Fenians, a bill suspending the 
Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland was passed. Mr. 
Gladstone, in explaining the necessity for the 
measure, said that the government were ready 
at any time to consider any measure for the 
benefit of Ireland, but it was the single duty of 
the House at the moment to strengthen the 
hands of the Executive in the preservation of 
law and order. The bill was renewed by the 
Derby government, and passed as before, as the 
result of an anticipated great Fenian uprising 
under " Head-Centre '' Stephens. 

During a debate on the bill for the abolition 
of Church rates, Mr. Gladstone said that the law 
requiring Church rates was prima facie open to 
great objection, but he could not vote for total 
abolition. He offered a compromise and proposed 
that Dissenters be exempted from paying Church 
rates, and at the same time be disqualified from 
interfering with funds to which they had not 
contributed. The compromise was accepted, but 
failed to become a law. 

On the subject of reform, mentioned in the 
address, there were great debates, during the 
session of 1866. The new Cabinet, known as 
the Russell-Gladstone Ministry, set themselves 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 3^9 

to work in earnest upon a question that Had 
baffled all tHe skill of various administrations. 
As a part of the reform scheme, Mr. Gladstone 
brought forward a Franchise Bill in the House 
of Commons, March 12th. 

The bill satisfied most of the Liberal party. 
Mr. Robert Lowe, a Liberal, became one of its 
most powerful assailants. His enmity to the 
working classes made him extremely unpopular. 
Mr. Horseman also joined the Conservatives in 
opposing the bill. Mr. Bright, in a crushing 
retort, fastened upon the small party of Liberals, 
led by these two members in opposition to the bill, 
the epithet of '' Adullamites." Mr. Horseman, 
Mr. Bright said, had " retired into what may be 
called his political Cave of Adullam, to which he 
invited every one who was in distress, and every 
one who was discontented. He had long been 
anxious to found a party in this house, and 
there is scarcely a member at this end of the 
House who is able to address us with effect or to 
take much part, whom he has not tried to bring 
over to his party and his cabal. At last he has 
succeeded in hooking * * * Mr. Lowe. I 
know it was the opinion many years ago of a 
member of the Cabinet that two men could make 
a party. When a party is formed of two men so 
amiable and so disinterested as the two gentle- 
men, we may hope to see for the first time in 
Parliament a party perfectly harmonious and 



390 William E. Gladstone 

distinguished by mutual and unbroken trust. 
But there is one difficulty which it is impossible 
to remove. This party of two is like the Scotch 
terrier that is so covered with hair that you 
could not tell which was the head and which was 
the tail." This sally, which excited immoderate 
laughter, remains one of the happiest examples 
of Parliamentary retort and badinage. 

During this session the Conservative party 
met at the residence of the Marquis of Salisbury, 
and decided upon strongly opposing the measure 
proposed by the Liberal government. Mr. Bright 
characterized it as '' a dirty conspiracy." On the 
other hand, the country supported the bill, and 
great meetings were held in its interest. Mr. 
Gladstone spoke at a great meeting at. Liverpool. 
He said : " Having produced this measure, found- 
ed in a spirit of moderation, we hope to support 
it with decision. * * * We have passed the 
Rubicon, we have broken the bridge and burned 
the boats behind us. We have advisedly cut off 
the means of retreat, and having done this, we 
hope that, as far as time is yet permitted, we 
have done our duty to the Crown and to the 
nation." This was regarded as the bugle-call to 
the Liberal party for the coming battle. 

The debate began April 12th, and continued 
for eight nights. '^ On no occasion since, and 
seldom before, has such a flow of eloquence been 
heard within the walls of the House of Commons." 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 3O1 

Mr. Disraeli spoke for tliree Hours against the 
bill, and in His speecH accused Mr. Gladstone of 
introducing American ideas of Government, and 
of Having once assailed tHe very principles He 
now advocated, wHen in tHe Oxford Union He 
spoke against tHe Reform Bill of 1832. Mr. 
Gladstone's reply was one of tHe most note- 
worthy parts of tHis famous debate. He rose at 
one o'clock in tHe morning to conclude a legisla- 
tive battle wHicH Had begun two weeks before. 
" At last," Mr. Gladstone said, "we Have obtained 
a declaration from an autHoritative source tHat a 
bill wHicH, in a country witH five millions of 
adult males, proposes to add to a limited con- 
stituency 200,000 of tHe middle class and 200,000 
of tlie working class, is, in tHe judgment of tHe 
leader of tHe Tory party, a bill to reconstruct tHe 
constitution upon American principles. 

" THe rigHt Honorable gentleman, secure in 
tHe recollection of His own consistency, Has 
taunted me witH tHe errors of my boy Hood. 
WHen He addressed tHe Honorable member of 
Westminster, He sHowed His magnanimity by 
declaring tHat He would not take tHe pHilosopHer 
to task for wHat He wrote twenty-five years ago ; 
but wHen He caugHt one wHo, tHirty-six years 
ago, just emerged from boy Hood, and still an 
undergraduate at Oxford, Had expressed an 
opinion adverse to tHe Reform Bill of 1832, of 
wHicH He Had so long and bitterly repented, then 



39^ William E. Gladstone 

tlie right honorable gentleman could not resist 
the temptation." 

The bill was put upon its passage. The 
greatest excitement prevailed. " The house 
seemed charged with electricity, like a vast 
thunder-cloud ; and now a spark was about to 
be applied. Strangers rose in their seats, the 
crowd at the bar pushed half-way up the House, 
the Royal Princes leaned forward in their stand- 
ing places, and all was confusion." Presently 
order was restored, and breathless excitement 
prevailed while the tellers announced that the 
bill had been carried by a majority of only five. 

^' Hardly had the words left the teller's lips 
than there arose a wild, raging, mad-brained 
shout from floor and gallery, such as has never 
been heard in the present House of Commons. 
Dozens of half-frantic Tories stood up in their 
seats, madly waved their hats and hurrahed at 
the top of their voices. Strangers in both gal- 
leries clapped their hands. The Adullamites on 
the Ministerial benches, carried away by the 
delirium of the moment, waved their hats in 
sympathy with the Opposition, and cheered as 
loudly as any. Mr. lyowe, the leader, instigator, 
and prime mover of the conspiracy, stood up in 
the excitement of the moment — flushed, triumph- 
ant, and avenged. * * * He took off his hat, 
waved it in wide and triumphant circles over the 
heads of the very men who had just gone into the 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 393 

lobby against bim. * * * But see, tbe Cban- 
cellor of tbe Excbeqiier lifts up bis band to be- 
speak silence, as if be bad sometbing to say in 
regard to tbe result of tbe division. But tbe 
more tbe great orator lifts bis band beseecbingly, 
tbe more tbe cbeers are renewed and tbe bats 
waved. At lengtb tbe noise comes to an end by 
tbe process of exbaustion, and tbe Cbancellor of 
tbe Excbequer rises. Tben tbere is a universal 
busb, and you migbt bear a pin drop." 

" Few, if any, could anticipate at tbis time, 
tbat in tbe course of one sbort year a Conserva- 
tive Government would find itself compelled to 
take up tbat very question of Reform, wbose 
virtual defeat its opponents now bailed witb 
sucb intoxicating expressions of deligbt." How- 
ever, tbe bill was unexpectedly wrecked June i8tb, 
by an amendment substituting a ratal instead of 
a rental basis for tbe borougb francbise. Tbe 
ministry regarding tbis as a vital point, could 
not agree to it, and consequently tbrew up tbeir 
measure and resigned office. Tbe Queen was 
unwilling to accept tbeir resignation. But tbe 
ministry felt tbat tbey bad lost tbe confidence of 
tbe House, so tbeir resignation was announced 
June 26tb. 

Tbe apatby of tbe people about reform tbat 
Earl Russell tbougbt be perceived, as far as 
London was concerned, at once disappeared. A 
great demonstration was mad^ at Trafalgar 



394 William E. Gladstone 

Square, wliere some ten thousand people assem- 
bled and passed resolutions in favor of reform. 
A serious riot occurred at Hyde Park in conse- 
quence of the prohibition by the Government 
of the meeting of the Reform League. The 
Reformers then marched to Carleton House 
Terrace, the residence of Mr. Gladstone, singing 
songs in his honor. He was away from home, 
but Mrs. Gladstone and her family came out on 
the balcony to acknowledge the tribute paid by 
the people. It is said that Mr. Gladstone, now 
for the first time, became a popular hero. Great 
meetings were held in the interest of reform in the 
large towns of the North and the Midlands, where 
his name was received with tumultuous applause. 
Mr. Gladstone was hailed everywhere as the 
leader of the Liberal party. Reform demon- 
strations continued during the whole of the 
recess. A meeting was held at Brookfields, near 
Birmingham, which was attended by nearly 
250,000 people. The language of some of the 
ardent friends of reform was not always discreet, 
but Mr. Gladstone appears to have preserved a 
calm and dignified attitude. 

In the summer of 1866, Lord Derby had 
announced his acceptance of office as Premier, 
and the formation of a Conservative Cabinet. 
The demonstrations of the people compelled the 
Conservatives to introduce measures in Liberal 
Reform, Accordingly, in 1867, Mr. Disraeli and 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 395 

his colleagues passed a Reform Bill, whicli, after 
various modifications, was far more extreme than 
that presented by the Liberals and defeated. 

Owing to a division in the ranks of the 
Liberal members on the pending bill, Mr. Glad- 
stone withdrew from the active leadership of the 
House, but soon resumed it. Mr. Bright said, 
at Birmingham, that since 1832, there had been 
no man of Mr. Gladstone's rank as a statesman 
who had imported into the Reform question so 
much of conviction, of earnestness, and of zeal. 

Not long after this deputations from various 
parts of the country, accompanied by their rep- 
resentatives in Parliament, called on Mr. Glad- 
stone to present addresses expressive of confidence 
in him as Liberal leader. 

Lord Cranborne expressed his astonishment 
at hearing the bill described as a Conservative 
triumph. It was right that its real parentage 
should be established. The bill had been 
modified by Mr. Gladstone. All his points were 
conceded. If the adoption oi ^"he principles of 
Mr. Bright could be described as a, triumph, then 
indeed the Conservative party, in the whole 
history of its previous annals, had won no 
triumphs so simple as this. In the House of 
Lords the Duke of Buccleuch declared that the 
only word in the bill that remained unaltered 
waS; the first word, " whereas," 



396 William E. Gladstone 

" The work of reform was completed in the 
session of 1868, by the passing of the Scotch and 
Irish Reform Bills, a Boundary Bill for England 
and Wales, an Election Petitions and Corrupt 
Practices Prevention Bill, and the Registration 
of Voters Bill. The object of the last-named 
measure was to accelerate the elections, and to 
enable Parliament to meet before the end of 1868." 

In the autumn of 1866, Mr. Gladstone and 
his family again visited Italy, and at Rome had 
an audience with Pope Pio Nono. It became 
necessary two years later, owing to this inter- 
view, for Mr. Gladstone formally to explain his 
visit. 

In February, 1868, Lord Derby, owing to 
failing health, resigned. The Derby Ministry 
retired from office, and Mr. Disraeli became 
Prime Minister. An English author writes : 
'' There was, of course, but one possible Con- 
servative Premier — Mr. Disraeli — he who had 
served the Conservative party for more than 
thirty years, who had led it to victory, and who 
had long been the ruling spirit of the Cabinet." 

The elevation of Mr. Disraeli to the Pre- 
miership before Mr. Gladstone, produced, in some 
quarters, profound regret and even indignation. 
But Mr. Disraeli, though in office, was not in 
power. He was nominally the leader of a House 
that contained a large majority of his political 
opponents, now united among themselves, Th^ 




Salisbuby Ministry Defeated, a Victoky foe Gladstone. 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 399 

scHisin in the Liberal party had been healed by 
the question of Reform, and they could now 
defeat the government whenever they chose to 
do so; consequently Mr. Gladstone took the 
initiative. His compulsory Church Rates Aboli- 
tion Bill was introduced and accepted. By this 
measure all legal proceedings for the recovery 
of church rates were abolished. The question 
that overshadowed all others, however, was that 
of the Irish Church. 

On the 1 6th of March Mr. Gladstone struck 
the first blow in the struggle that was to end in 
the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Mr. 
Maguire moved that the House consider the con- 
dition of Ireland. Mr. Gladstone said that Ireland 
had a controversy with England and a long ac- 
count against England. It was a debt of justice, 
and he enumerated six particulars, one of which 
was the Established Episcopal Church. Relig- 
ious Equality, he contended, must be conceded. 
He said, in referring to his speech made on the 
motion of Mr. Dillwyn in 1865 • "The opinion 
I held then and hold now — namely, that in order 
to the settlement of this question of the Irish 
Church, that Church, as a State Church, must 
cease to exist." 

This speech excited feelings of consternation 
amongst the Ministerialists. Mr. Disraeli be- 
wailed his own unhappy fate at the commence- 
ment of his Qat^er ^sS fnm^ Minister, at finding 



4CX) William E. Gladstone 

himself face to face with the necessity of settling 
an account of seven centuries old. He complained 
that all the elements of the Irish crisis had existed 
while Mr. Gladstone was in office, but no attempt 
had been made to deal with them. 

March 23d Mr. Gladstone proposed resolu- 
tions affirming that the Irish Episcopal Church 
should cease to exist as an establishment, and 
asking the Queen to place at the disposal of Par- 
liament her interest in the temporalities of the 
Irish Church. 

Mr. Gladstone's resolution was carried by a 
majority of 65, and the Queen replied that she 
would not suffisr her interests to stand in the way 
of any measures contemplated by Parliament. 
Consequently Mr. Gladstone brought in his 
Irish Church Suspensory Bill, which was 
adopted by the Commons, but rejected by the 
Lords. During the discussion, ministerial ex- 
planations followed ; Mr. Disraeli described, in 
his most pompous vein, his audiences with the 
Queen. His statement amounted to this — that, 
in spite of adverse votes, the Ministers intended 
to hold on till the autumn, and then to appeal to 
the new electorate created by the Reform Act. 

Lord Houghton wrote : ^' Gladstone is the 
great triumph, but as he owns that he has to 
drive a four-in-hand, consisting of English 
Liberals, English Dissenters, Scotch Presby- 
terians, and Irish Catholics, he requires all his 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 401 

courage to look the difficulties iu the face and 
trust to surmount them. 

An appeal was now made to the country. 
The general election that followed, in November, 
was fought out mainly upon this question. A 
great Liberal majority was returned to Parlia- 
ment, which was placed at 115. But there were 
several individual defeats, among them Mr. Glad- 
stone himself, who was rejected by South Lancas- 
ter. This was in part owing to the readjustment 
of seats according to the Reform Bill. But Mr. 
Gladstone received an invitation from Greenwich^ 
in the southwestern division, where he was warmly 
received by the electors. '' He spoke everywhere, 
with all his fiery eloquence, on the monstrous 
foolishness of a religious establishment which 
ministered only to a handful of the people." Is 
the Irish Church to be or not to be? was the 
question. He was returned for that borough by a 
large majority over his Conservative opponents. 

Archbishop Wilberforce wrote in November: 
" The returns to the House of Commons leave 
no doubt of the answer of the country to Glad- 
stone's appeal. In a few weeks he will be in 
office at the head of a majority of something 
like a hundred, elected on the distinct issue of 
Gladstone and the Irish Church." 

The feeling was so enormously great in its 
preponderance for Mr, Gladstone's policy of 



402 William E. Gladstone 

Liberal Reform, especially for tlie disestablish- 
ment of the Irish Church, that Mr. Disraeli did 
not adopt the usual course of waiting for the 
endorsement of the new Parliament, which he 
felt sure would be given to Mr. Gladstone, but 
resigned, and the first Disraeli Cabinet went out 
of office, December 2d. 

December 4, 1868, the Queen summoned 
Mr. Gladstone to Windsor to form a Cabinet. 
He had now attained the summit of political 
ambition. He was the first Commoner in the 
land — the uncrowned king of the British Empire 
— for such is the English Premier. ^' All the 
industry and self-denial of a laborious life, all 
the anxieties and burdens and battles of five 
and thirty years of Parliamentary struggle were 
crowned by this supreme and adequate reward. 
He was Prime Minister of England — had 
attained to that gaol of the Eton boy's am- 
bition; and, what perhaps was to him of greater 
consideration, he was looked up to by vast num- 
bers of the people as their great leader." 

December 9th the new government was 
completed and the ministers received their seals 
from the Queen. Mr. Bright, contrary to all 
expectation, became President of the Board of 
Trade. In offering themselves for re-election, 
the members of the new Cabinet found no 
trouble — all were returned. Mr. Gladstone was 
returned by Greenwich, 



Liberal Reformer and prime Minister 403 

With the year 1869 ^r. Gladstone entered 
upon a great period of Reform. The new Par- 
liament was opened December loth. On the 
nth Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone paid a visit to 
Lord and Lady Salisbury, at Hatfield. Bishop 
Wilberforce was there and had opportunity to 
observe his old and honored friend in the first 
flush of his new dignity. Here are his com- 
ments : " Gladstone, as ever, great, earnest, and 
honest ; as unlike the tricky Disraeli as possible." 
To Dr. Trench the Bishop wrote : " The nation 
has decided against our establishment, and we 
bow to its decision, and on what tenure and 
conditions it is to be held, remains confessedly 
open." " But his sagacious and statesmanlike 
counsel, was disregarded. The Irish Bishops 
ranged themselves in bitter but futile hostility 
to the change. A frantic outbreak of Protestant 
violence began in Ireland and spread to Eng- 
land." Bishop Wilberforce notes this conversa- 
tion at Windsor Castle : " The Queen very 
affable. ^ So sorry Mr. Gladstone started this 
about the Irish Church, and he is a great friend 
of yours.' " 

On the 15th of February Parliament as- 
sembled. March ist Mr. Gladstone introduced 
his momentous bill in a speech of three hours, 
his first speech as Prime Minister, which was 
characterized as '^ calm, moderate and kindly." 
It was proposed that on January i, 1871, the 



404 William E. Gladstone 

Irish. Clitircli should cease to exist as an estab- 
lishment and should become a free Church. 

Mr. Disraeli, in the Commons, moved the 
rejection of the bill. In opposing the measure 
he objected to disestablishment, because lie was 
in favor of the union of Church and State. 

Mr. Gladstone eloquently concluded as 
follows : ''As the clock points rapidly towards 
the dawn, so as rapidly flow out the years, 
the months, the days, that remain to the ex- 
istence of the Irish Established Church. * * * 
Not now are we opening this great question. 
Opened, perhaps, it was when the Parliament 
which expired last year pronounced upon it that 
emphatic judgment which can never be recalled. 
Opened it was, further, when in the months of 
autumn the discussions were held in every 
quarter of the Irish Church. Prosecuted an- 
other stage it was, when the completed elections 
discovered to us a manifestation of the national 
verdict more emphatic than, with the rarest 
exceptions, has been witnessed during the whole 
of our Parliamentary history. The good cause 
was further advanced towards its triumphant 
issue when the silent acknowledgment of the 
late government, that they declined to contest 
the question, was given by their retirement from 
of&ce, and their choosing a less responsible 
position from wbich to carry on a more desultory 
warfare against the policy which they had in the 



Liberal Reformer and Prime Minister 405 

previous session unsuccessfully attempted to 
resist. Another blow will soon be struck in the 
same good cause, and I will not intercept it one 
single moment more." 

The bill passed by an overwhelming vote — 
368 against 250— and went up to the Lords, 
where stirring debates occurred. But there, as 
well as in the House, the Irish Establishment 
was doomed. The bill, substantially unaltered, 
received the Royal assent July 26, 1869. 

The Annual Register for 1869 declared that 
the bill " was carried through in the face of a 
united and powerful opposition, mainly by the 
resolute will and unflinching energy of the 
Prime Minister. * * * Upon the whole, what- 
ever may be thought of its merits or demerits, it 
can hardly be disputed that the Act of the Dis- 
establishment of the Irish Church, introduced 
and carried into a law within somewhat less than 
five months, was the most remarkable legisla- 
tive achievement of modern times." 

The parliamentary session of 1870 was ren- 
dered memorable by the passing of a scarcely 
less popular and important measure — the Irish 
Land Bill. Mr. Gladstone, in speaking of 
Ireland, had referred to three branches of an 
Upas tree, to the growth of which her present 
sad condition was largely owing — the Irish 
Church, the Irish Land Laws, and the Irish 
Universities. The first branch had fallen 



4o6 



William E. Gladstone 



with, tlie disestablishment of the Irish Church, 
and Mr. Gladstone, pressing on in his reform, 
now proposed to lop off the second branch by 
his Irish Land Bill, which was in itself a 
revolution. It was claimed for Mr. Gladstone's 
new bill, or Land Scheme, that while it insured 
for the tenant security of holding, it did not 
confiscate a single valuable right of the Irish 
land-owner. Mr. Gladstone remarked that he 
believed there was a great fund of national 
wealth in the soil of Ireland as yet undeveloped, 
and said he trusted that both tenant and land- 
lord would accept the bill because it was just. 
The bill passed, and received the approval of 
the Queen, August i, 1870. 




The Old l/xon 





CHAPTER XV 

THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIBERALISM 

|N wliat has been denominated the ^'Golden 
Age of Liberalism" the Liberal party 
was united, enthusiastic, victorious, full 
of energy, confidence and hope. " I 
have not any misgivings about Glad- 
stone personally," says an English writer, ^' but 
as leader of the party to which the folly of the 
Conservatives and the selfish treachery of 
Disraeli, bit by bit, allied him, he cannot do 
what he would, and, with all his vast powers, there 
is a want of sharp-sighted clearness as to others. 
But God rules. I do not see how we are, after 
Disraeli's Reform Bill, long to avoid fundamental 
changes, both in Church and State." 

Justin Mc Carthy has well summed up the 
aims of Mr, Gladstone and his party on their 
accession to power : " Nothing in modern Eng- 
lish history is like the rush of the extraordinary 
years of reforming energ}^ on which the new 
a/iministration had now entereil. Mr. Glad- 
stone's government had to grapple witJi five or 

407 



4o8 William E. Gladstone 

six great questions, any one of wliicli might Have 
seemed enougli to engage the whole attention of 
an ordinary administration. The new Prime 
Minister had pledged himself to abolish the State 
Church in Ireland, and to reform the Irish Land 
Tenure system. He had made up his mind to 
put an end to the purchase of commissions in the 
army. Recent events and experiences had con- 
vinced him that it was necessary to introduce the 
system of voting by ballot. He accepted for his 
government the responsibility of originating a 
complete system of national education." 

The first great measure of the new adminis- 
tration had been successfully pushed through, 
and, flushed with triumph, the Liberal leaders 
were now ready to introduce other important 
legislation. In 1870, the Elementary Education 
Act, providing for the establishment of school 
boards, and securing the benefits of education for 
the poor in England and Wales was introduced. 
By it a national and compulsory system of 
education was established for the first time. ^^ It 
is important to note that the concessions made 
during its course to the convictions of Tories and 
Churchmen, in the matter of religious education, 
stirred the bitter and abiding wrath of the 
political Dissenters." The measure was passed, 
while the half-penny postage for newspapers, and 
the half-penny post cards were among the benefits 
secured. 



The Golden Age of Liberalism 409 

In April, 1870, a party of EnglisH travelers 
in Greece were seized by brigands. The ladies 
were released and also Lord Mnncaster, who 
was sent to* Athens to arrange for ransom 
and a free pardon. Bnt the Greek Government 
sending soldiers to release the captives and cap- 
ture the captors, the English were murdered. 
The English Minister at Athens was in treaty 
for the release of his countrymen, but the great 
difficulty was to procure pardon from the Greek 
government. This terrible affair created a pro- 
found sensation in .England, and it was brought 
before Parliament. Mr. Gladstone pleaded for 
further information before taking decided steps. 
But for the arrest and execution of most of the 
brigands, and the extirpation of the band, the 
diabolical deed went unavenged. 

In July, war broke out suddenly between 
France and Germany, which resulted in the 
dethronement of Napoleon III. England pre- 
served neutrality. However, Mr. Gladstone had 
ns opinion regarding the war and thus repre- 
sented it : " It is not for me to distribute praise 
and blame ; but I think the war as a whole, and 
the state of things out of which it has grown, 
deserve a severer condemnation than any which 
the nineteenth century has exhibited since the 
peace of 181 5." And later, in an anonymous 
article, the only one he ever wrote, and which 
contained the famous phrase, "the streak of 



4i6 William E. Gladstone 

silver sea," lie "distributed blame with, great 
impartiality between both belligerent powers." 
Among the business transacted in tbe 
session of 1870 was tbe following : All appoint- 
ments to situations in all Civil Departments of 
tbe State, except the Foreign Office and posts 
requiring professional knowledge, should be filled 
by open competition ; and the royal prerogative 
that claimed the General Commanding-in-Chief 
as the agent of the Crown be abolished, and that 
distinguished personage was formally declared to 
be subordinate to the Minister of War. Mr. Glad- 
stone announced the intention of the government 
to release the Fenian prisoners then undergoing 
sentences for treason or treason-felony, on con- 
dition of their not remaining in or returning to 
the United Kingdom. The Premier, alluding to 
the enormity of their offenses, said that the same 
principles of justice which dictated their sentences 
would amply sanction the prolongation of their 
imprisonment if the public security demanded it. 
The press and country generally approved this 
decision of the Premier, but some condemned him 
for the condition he imposed in the amnesty. 
The religious test imposed upon all students 
entering at the universities was abolished, and 
all students of all creeds could now enter the 
universities on an equal footing. Heretofore 
special privileges were accorded to members of 
the Established Episcopal Church, and all others 



The Golden Age of Liberalism 411 

were cut ofif from the full enjoyment of the uni- 
versities. 

A bill to establish secret voting was 
rejected by the Lords, but was passed the next 
session. The House of Lords, emboldened by 
their success in throwing out the voting bill, 
defeated a bill to abolish the purchase of com- 
missions in the army, but Mr. Gladstone was not 
to be turned from his purpose, and startled the 
peers by a new departure — he dispensed with 
their consent, and accomplished his purpose with- 
out the decision of Parliament. Finding that 
purchase in the army existed only by royal 
sanction, he, with prompt decision, advised the 
Queen to issue a royal warrant declaring that 
on and after November i, 1871, all regulations 
attending the purchase of commissions should be 
cancelled. The purchase of official positions in 
the army was thus abolished. It was regarded 
as a high-handed act on the part of the Prime 
Minister, and a stretch of executive authority, 
and was denounced by Lords and Commons, 
friends and foes. Tories and Peers especially 
were enraged, and regarded themselves as baffled. 

The condition of affairs in Ireland was 
alarming. The spread of an agrarian conspiracy 
at Westmeath compelled the government to 
move for a committee to inquire into the unlaw- 
ful combinatioix and confederacy ejcisting. ^' Mr, 



412 William E. Gladstone 

Disraeli was severely sarcastic at tHe expense of 
the government." 

The grant proposed by the government to 
the Princess Louise on her marriage aroused the 
opposition of some members of the House, who 
claimed to represent the sentiments of a consider- 
able number of people. It was proposed to 
grant ^30,000 and an annuity of ^6,000. The 
Premier stated that the Queen in marrying her 
daughter to one of her own subjects, had followed 
her womanly and motherly instincts. He dwelt 
upon the political importance of supporting the 
dignity of the crown in a suitable manner ; upon 
the value of a stable dynasty ; and the unwisdom 
of making minute pecuniary calculations upon 
such occasions. It was carried by a remarkable 
majority of 350 votes against i. 

In 1 87 1 the treaty of Washington was 
concluded. But the Geneva awards for the 
damage done to American shipping by the 
" Alabama," did much to undermine Mr. Glad- 
stone's popularity with the warlike portion of 
the British public and there were various in- 
dications that the Ministry were becoming un- 
popular. There were other causes tributary to 
this effect. His plans of retrenchment had de- 
prived Greenwich of much of its trade, hence his 
seat was threatened. Mr. Gladstone resolved to 
face the difficulty boldly, and to meet the 
juurmurers on their own ground, October 28, 



The Golden age of liberalism 413 

1871, tie addressed his Greenwich* constituents. 
The air was heavy with murmurs and threats. 
Twenty thousand people were gathered at Black- 
heath. It was a cold afternoon when he 
appeared bare-headed, and defended the whole 
policy of the administration. '' His speech was 
as long, as methodical, as argumentative, 
and in parts as eloquent, as if he had been 
speaking at his ease under the friendly and 
commodious shelter of the House of Commons." 
The growing unpopularity of the Government 
was evidenced in the first reception given to the 
Premier by his constituents. Groans and cheers 
were mingled, and his voice at first was drowned 
by the din. Finally he was heard, and won the 
day, the people enthusiastically applauding and 
waving a forest of hats. One cause of unpopu- 
larity was what is called '' the Ewelme Scandal,'* 
and another the elevation of Sir Robert Collin to 
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. 

Mr. Gladstone said: "I have a shrewd 
suspicion in my mind that a very large proportion 
of the people of England have a sneaking kindness 
for the hereditary principle. My observation has 
not been of a very brief period, and what I have 
observed is this, that wherever there is anything 
to be done, or to be given, and there are two 
candidates for it who are exactly alike— alike in 
opinions, alike in character, alike in possessions, 
the one being a commoner and the other a lord— 



414 William e. Gladstone 

the EnglislittRin is very apt indeed to prefer the 
lord." He detailed the great advantage which 
had accrued from the legislation of the past 
generation, including free-trade, the removal of 
twenty millions of taxation, a cheap press,, and 
an education bill. Mr. Gladstone thus restored 
himself to the confidence of his constituents, 
but the ministry did not wholly regain the popu- 
larity they once enjoyed. The Gladstone period 
had passed its zenith and its decadence had 
already begun. 

During the autumn Mr. Gladstone received 
the freedom of the city of Aberdeen, and made a 
speech, in which occurred a remarkable reference 
to '' the newly-invented cry of Home Rule." 
He spoke of the political illusions to which 
Ireland was periodically subject, the extremes to 
which England had gone in satisfying her 
demands, and the removal of all her grievances, 
except that which related to higher education. 
He said that any inequalities resting between 
England and Ireland were in favor of Ireland, 
and as to Home Rule, if Ireland was entitled to it, 
Scotland was better entitled, and even more so 
Wales. 

Ireland had proved the glory of Mr. Glad- 
stone's administration. Its name had been asso- 
ciated with the most brilliant legislative triumphs 
of governnieiit, But Ireland was also destined 



t^^ 






ti'**^ 'Vj- 



TPrr ^i;?^ — --^^jr — ■■ ; ■■■■ [ ^^ . ..^ 














Gladstone's Reception aftee the Defeat of the 
Salisbury Ministry, 



The Golden Age of Liberalism 417 

to be the government's most serious stumbling- 
block, and fated to be tbe immediate measure of 
its overthrow. In tbe session of 1873 Mr. 
Gladstone endeavored to further bis plans for 
Reform, and consequently vigorously attacked 
the third branch of the '' upas tree," to which he 
had referred. He labored to put the universities 
on a proper basis, that they might be truly 
educational centres for the whole of Ireland, and 
not for a small section of its inhabitants alone. 
This step followed legitimately after the dis- 
establishment of the Irish Church. He intro- 
duced to this end a large and comprehensive 
measure, but although it was favorably received 
at the outset, a hostile feeling soon began and 
manifested itself Mr. Gladstone pleaded power- 
fully for the measure, and said : ^' To mete out 
justice to Ireland, according to the best view 
that with human infirmity we could form, has 
been the work — I will almost say the sacred 
work— of this Parliament. Having put our 
hands to the plough, let us not turn back. Let 
not what we think the fault or perverseness of 
those whom we are attempting to assist have 
the slightest effect in turning us, even by a 
hair's-breadth, from the path on which we have 
entered. As we begun so let us persevere, even 
to the end, and with firm and resolute hand let 
us efface from the law and practice of the country 



4i8 William E. Gladstone 

the last — for I believe it is the last — of the 
religious and social grievances of Ireland." 

Mr. Disraeli made fun of the bill, stalwart 
Liberals condemned it, and the Irish members 
voted against it, hence the bill was defeated by a 
small majority of three votes. Mr. Gladstone 
consequently resigned, but Mr. Disraeli positively 
declined to take office with a majority of the 
House of Commons against him, and refused to 
appeal to the country. Mr. Gladstone read an 
extract from a letter he had addressed to the 
Queen, in which he contended that Mr. Disraeli's 
refusal to accept office was contrary to all prece- 
dent. But under the extraordinary circumstances 
he and his colleagues consented to resume office, 
and they would endeavor to proceed, both with 
regard to legislation and administration upon the 
same principle as those which had heretofore 
regulated their conduct. Mr. Lowe, the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, having resigned, Mr. 
Gladstone assumed the duties of the office himself, 
thus serving in the double offices of Premier and 
Chancellor. During the recess various speeches 
were made in defence of the Ministerial policy, 
but the government failed to recover its once 
overwhelming popularity. 

On the 19th of July, 1873, Mr. Gladstone lost 
by sudden death one of his oldest and most highly 
esteemed friends — Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop 
of Winchester. He was riding to Holmbury 



The Gouden Age of Liberalism 419 

with Earl Granville, when he was thrown from 
his horse and killed instantly. 

The end of Mr. Gladstone's first ministry 
was now drawing near. The people no longer 
desired to keep up with the reforming zeal of the 
administration. Mr. Disraeli's strongly exagge- 
rated description of the Premier's policy had the 
effect of forming the popular discontent ; lyiberal 
members were deserting him. The Bible was in 
danger of being left out of the schools, and beer 
was threatened with taxation. The flag of " Beer 
and the Bible " — strange combination — having 
been hoisted by clergy and publicans, the cry 
against the ministry became irresistible. Deserted 
by the people and by many of his own party, 
what was to be done unless to appeal to the coun- 
try and decide by a general election what was 
wanted and who would be sustained. 

January, 1874, Mr. Gladstone issued a mani- 
festo dissolving Parliament. In this document, 
entitled to be called a State paper for its political 
and historical importance, Mr. Gladstone stated 
his reasons for what was regarded by many as a 
coup d^ Hat. It is impossible to describe the 
public excitement and confusion which attended 
the general election thus unexpectedly decreed. 
Mr. Gladstone, recovering from a cold, appealed 
with great energy to Greenwich for re-election. 
The general election resulted in the defeat of the 
Liberals, and gave to the Conservatives a majority 



420 William E. Gladstone 

of forty-six in the House. Mr. Gladstone was 
elected, but Greenwich which returned two mem- 
bers, placed the Premier second on the poll — 
below a local distiller.. Following the example 
of his predecessor, in 1868, Mr. Gladstone resigned. 
" Thus was overthrown one of the greatest admin- 
istrations of the century ; indeed, it may be 
doubted whether any other English Ministry was 
ever able to show such a splendid record of great 
legislative acts within so short a period. There 
was not one measure, but a dozen, which would 
have shed lustre upon any government ; and the 
six years of Mr. Gladstone's first Premiership 
are well entitled to the epithet which has been 
accorded to them of ' the Golden Age of Liberal- 
ism.' " 

Before the next Parliament met Mr. Glad- 
stone was to give the country another surprise. 
He was now sixty-four years old, had been forty 
years in active parliamentary labors, and thought 
himself justified in seeking rest from the arduous 
duties of public life, at least the pressing cares as 
leader of one of the great political parties. 
When his contemplated retirement had before 
become known to his friends, they induced him 
for a while longer to act as leader, but in Febru- 
ary, 1875, ^^ finally retired from the leadership 
and indeed appeared but rarely in the House of 
Commons during that session. 



The Golden age of Liberalism 421 

" The retirement of Mr. Gladstone from active 
leadership naturally filled his party with dismay. 
According to the general law of human life, they 
only realized their blessings when they had lost 
them. They had grumbled at their chief and 
mutinied against him and helped to depose him. 
But, now that this commanding genius was sud- 
denly withdrawn from their councils they found 
that they had nothing to put in its place. Their 
indignation waxed fast and furious, and was not 
the less keen because they had to some extent, 
brought their trouble on themselves. They com- 
plained with almost a ludicrous pathos that 
Mr. Gladstone had led them into a wilderness of 
opposition and left them there to perish. They 
were as sheep without a shepherd and the raven- 
ing wolves of Toryism seemed to have it all 
their own way." 

Between the time of Mr. Gladstone's retire- 
ment from the Premiership and his resignation 
of leadership in the House, he had quickly re- 
appeared in the House of Commons and vigor- 
ously opposed the Public Worship Regulation 
Bill. Mr. Gladstone attacked the bill with a 
power and vehemence which astonished the 
House. The great objection to it was its inter- 
ference with liberty, and with the variety of 
customs which had grown up in different parts 
of the country. To enforce strict uniformity 
would be oppressive and inconvenient. The bill 



422 



WILLIAM E. Gladstone 



became law, however, tliougli it has largely 
proved inoperative, Mr. Gladstone also opposed 
the Endowed Schools Act Amendment Bill, which 
practically gave to the Church of England the 
control of schools that were thrown open to the 
whole nation by the policy of the last Parliament. 
So great a storm was raised over this reactionary 
bill that Mr. Disraeli was obliged to modify its 
provisions considerably before it could become a 
law. Mr. Gladstone was also active at this time 
in delivering addresses at Liverpool College, the 
Buckley Institute and the well-known Non- 
conformist College at Mill Hill. 




MR. GLADSTONE'S MAIL 



CHAPTER XVI 
The Eastern Question 

^^^ife T'^RING his retirement from the leader- 
4r| ship of the Liberal Party, Mr. Glad- 
^^f^^^ stone employed his great abilities in 
theological controversy and literary 
productions. It was during this 
period that he collected his miscellaneous writ- 
ings, entitled ^' Gleanings from Past Years." A 
little more than a year had elapsed when he again 
entered the political arena. " He threw aside 
polemics and criticisms, he forgot for awhile 
Homer and the Pope," and " rushed from his 
library at Hawarden, forgetting alike ancient 
Greece and modern Rome," as he flung himself 
with impassioned energy and youthful vigor into 
a new crusade against Turkey. A quarter of a 
century before he had aroused all Europe with 
the story of the Neapolitan barbarities, and now 
again his keen sense of justice and strong, 
humanitarian sympathies impel him with right- 
eous indignation to the eloquent defence of 
another oppressed people, and the denunciation 

42| 



424 William e. Gladstone 

of their wrongs. It was the Eastern Question 
that at once brought back the Liberal leader 
into the domain of politics. "The spirit of the 
war-horse could not be quenched, and the country 
thrilled with his fiery condemnation of the Bul- 
garian massacres," His activity was phenom- 
enal. *' He made the most impassioned speeches, 
often in the open air; he published pamphlets 
which rushed into incredible circulations ; he 
poured letter after letter into the newspapers ; 
he darkened the sky with controversial post- 
cards, and, as soon as Parliament met in 
February, 1877, he was ready with all his un- 
equalled resources of eloquence, argumentation 
and inconvenient enquiry, to drive home his 
great indictment against the Turkish govern- 
ment and its champion, Mr. Disraeli, who had 
now become Lord Beaconsfield." 

" The reason of all this passion is not diffi- 
cult to discover. Mr. Gladstone is a Christian; 
and in the Turk he saw the great anti-Christian 
power where it ought not, in the fairest provinces 
of Christendom, and stained with the record of 
odious cruelty practised through long centuries 
on its defenceless subjects who were worshippers 
of Jesus Christ." 

Turkish oppression, which had for a long 
time existed in its worst forms, resulted in an 
insurrection against Turkey and Herzegovina, 
July 1 5 1875. This, however, was only the 



The Eastern Question 425 

beginning, for others suffering under Ottoman 
oppression rebelled, and all Europe was involved. 

In January, 1876, the Herzegovinians gained 
a victory over tbe Turkish, troops. The Euro- 
pean powers then suggested a settlement favorable 
to the insurgents, which was accepted by the 
Sultan. But early in May another insurrection 
broke out in several Bulgarian -villages, which 
was quickly followed b}^ the most horrible 
atrocities. A conference on the Eastern question 
was held at Berlin in May, and soon afterward 
the English ministers announced in Parliament 
that they were unable to assent to the terms 
agreed upon at the Berlin Conference. This 
announcement caused much surprise and com- 
ment in England. Public feeling already aroused, 
was not allayed when it became known that the 
British fleet in the Mediterranean had been 
ordered to Besiki Bay, seemingly for the protec- 
tion of the Turkish Empire. 

June 28th the Bulgarian insurrection was 
suppressed. On the loth of July the Sultan, 
Abdul Aziz, was deposed and was succeeded by 
Murad V, who declared that he desired to 
guarantee liberty to all. Mr. Disraeli stated, in 
the House of Commons, that the steps taken 
by the Ministry would lead to permanent peace. 
But within two weeks the Daily News published a 
letter from Constantinople detailing the massacre 
in Bulgaria by the Turks, which moved all 



426 William E. Gladstone 

England with, indignation. Innocent men, 
women and children had been slaughtered by 
the thousands ; at least sixty villages had been 
utterly destroyed ; the most revolting scenes of 
violence had been enacted ; and a district once the 
most fertile in the Empire had been laid waste 
and completely ruined. Forty girls were shut 
up in a straw loft and burnt, and outrages of the 
most fearful description were committed upon 
hundreds of defenceless captives. 

Mr. Disraeli, in the House of Commons, 
grew "jocular upon the cruelties and sufferings 
almost unparalleled in the world's history," and 
expressed his belief that the outrages committed 
by the Turkish troops had been exaggerated, 
and sneered at the rumor as " coffee-house 
babble ; '' while as to the torture of the impale- 
ment, which had caused universal anger and 
disgust, that an Oriental people have their way 
of executing malefactors, and generally termi- 
nated their connection with culprits in an expedi- 
tious manner. 

In the official report presented to Parliament 
by Mr. W. Baring, the reported outrages in 
Bulgaria were corroborated. No fewer than 
12,000 persons had perished in the sandjak of 
Philippopolis ! The most fearful tragedy, how- 
ever, was at Batak, where over 1000 people took 
refuge in the church and churchyard. The 
Bashi-Bazouks fired througk the windows, and, 



The Eastern Question 427 

getting upon tlie roof, tore off the tiles and threw 
burning pieces of wood and rags dipped in 
petroleum among the mass of unhappy human 
beings inside. At last the door was forced in 
and the massacre was completed. The inside of 
the church was then burnt, and hardly one 
escaped. '' The massacre at Batak was the most 
heinous crime which stained the history of the 
present century;" and for this exploit the 
Turkish Commander, Achmet Agha, had 
bestowed on him the order of the Medjidie. Sir 
Henry Elliot, the English Ambassador at Con- 
stantinople, was directed to lay these facts before 
the Sultan and to demand the punishment of the 
offenders. The demand, however, was .never 
enforced. 

Prince Milan issued a proclamation to his 
people, declaring that, while professing neutrality, 
the Sultan had continued to send military forces 
of savage hordes to the Servian frontier. In 
Jun^, Prince Milan left Belgrade and joined 
his army on the frontier. The Montenegrins 
declared war on Turkey and joined forces with 
Servia. July 6th the Servians were defeated. 
Thus was Turkey plunged into war with her 
Christian provinces, and all through her own 
misrule in peace and her barbarities in war. 

Mr. Disraeli in a speech made in the House 
of Commons, August nth, explained that he 
had not denied the existence of the '' Bulgariai?:, 



428 William E. Gladstone 

Atrocities," but lie had no official knowledge of 
tkem. He affirmed tliat Great Britain was not 
responsible for what occurred in Turkey, nor 
were the Turks the special proteges of England. 
He announced that the special duty of the 
Government at that moment was to preserve the 
British Empire, and that they would never con- 
sent to any step that would hazard the existence 
of that empire. This speech, which was dis- 
tinguished by much of his old brilliancy and 
power, was his last speech in the House. On 
the morning after this speech it was publicly 
announced that Mr. Disraeli would immediately 
be elevated to the peerage under the title of the 
Earl of Beaconsfield. 

In September, 1876, deeming it high time 
that the indignant voice of England should be 
heard in demonstration of the infamous deeds 
practiced by the Turk, Mr. Gladstone issued his 
pamphlet, entitled '' Bulgarian Horrors and the 
Question of the East." It had an enormous 
circulation. He called for a stop to be put to 
the anarchy, the misrule and the bloodshed in 
Bulgaria, and demanded that the Ottoman rule 
should be excluded, not only from Bosnia and 
Herzegovina, but also from Bulgaria. The 
Turks must clear out, ^' bag and baggage,'' from 
the provinces they have desolated and profaned. 
The pamphlet, and the latter expression espec- 
ially, produced a great sensation. 



The Eastern Question 429 

The pamphlet ^^ brought home to the Eng- 
lish people the idea that for these horrors which 
were going on, they too, as non-interfering allies 
of Turkey, were in part responsible." Soon 
after this Mr. Gladstone addressed a large con- 
course of his constituents at Blackheath, in 
which he severely arrainged the Government. 
This address was one of the most impassioned 
and eloquent of Mr. Gladstone's political orations, 
and at some points the people were literally 
carried away with their feelings. 

November ist, Turkey was forced by Russia 
to agree to an armistice of eight weeks. On 
the 2d the Russian Emperor pledged his word 
to the English Ambassador that he had no 
intention of acquiring Constantinople; that if 
compelled to occupy Bulgaria, it would be only 
until the safety of the Christian inhabitants be 
secured; and urged the Ambassador to remove 
the distrust of Russia prevailing in England. 
Yet, in the face of all these assurances, Lord 
Beaconsfield delivered a war-like speech, at the 
banquet at Guildhall, November 9th. Informed 
of this speech the Czar declared that if the 
Porte did not accede to his demands, Russia 
would then act independently. 

On the 8th of December there was a great 
conference at St. James' Hall, London, to dis- 
cuss the Eastern question. The Duke of 
Westminster presided at the afternoon meeting. 



430 William E. Gladstone 

• 

At the evening gatHering Lord Shaftesbury 
occupied the chair. Mr. E. Freeman said: 
'' Perish the interests of England, perish oiir 
dominion in India, sooner than we should strike 
one blow or speak one word on behalf of the 
wrong against the right." The chief interest 
of the occasion centered in the speech of Mr. 
Gladstone who was received with unbounded 
applause. He declared that there had been no 
change in public sentiment in England on the 
question ; that the promoters of that meeting had 
no desire to embarrass the Government ; that the 
power and influence of England had been em- 
ployed to effect results at variance with the 
convictions of the country ; that Lord Beacons- 
field had only recently appeared anxious ; and 
that England had duties towards the Christian 
subjects of Turkey. Mr. Gladstone continued 
that he hoped that the instructions given to 
Lord Salisbury, who had been sent for confer- 
ence to Constantinople, were not in accordance 
with the speech at Guildhall, but that he would 
be left to his own clear insight and generous 
impulses ; that the conference would insist upon 
the independence of the provinces, or at least 
would insure them against arbitrary injustice 
and oppression, and that the work indicated was 
not merely a worthy deed but an absolute duty. 
Mr. Gladstone, during the recess of Parlia- 
ment, delivered speeches upon the burning ques- 



The Eastern Question 431 

» 

tion of the day all over England. At Hawarden 
lie pleaded that it was the wretched Turkish 
system that was at fault, and not the Turks 
themselves, and hoped for a remedy. To the 
electors of Frome he spoke of the tremendous 
responsibility of the Ministers. In a speech at 
the Taunton Railway Station, he said, in refer- 
ence to the injunction for himself and friends to 
mind their own business, that the Eastern ques- 
tion was their own business. And when the 
Constantinople Conference failed he spoke of this 
^^ great transaction and woeful failure," and laid 
all the blame of failure on the Ministry. As 
to the treaties of 1856 being in force, his opinion 
was, that Turkey had entirely broken those 
treaties and trampled them under foot. 

January 20, 1877, the conference closed. 
Parliament met February 8, 1877, and the conflict 
was transferred from the country to that narrower 
arena. In the House of Lords the Duke of 
Argyle delivered a powerful speech, to which the 
Premier, Disraeli, replied, that he believed that 
any interference directed to the alleviation of the 
sufferings of the Turkish Christians would only 
make their sufferings worse. He asked for calm, 
sagacious and statesmanlike consideration of the 
whole subject, never forgetting the great interests 
of England, if it was to have any solution at all, 

Mr. Gladstone, upon his appearance in the 
House, was greeted as a Daniel come to judg- 



432 William E. Gladstone 

ment. He was taken to task by Mr. CHaplin, 
who complained that Mr. Gladstone and others 
of the Liberal party '' had endeavored to regulate 
the foreign policy of the country by pamphlets, 
by speeches at public meetings, and by a so-called 
National Conference, instead of leaving it in the 
hands of the Executive Government," and inti- 
mated that Mr. Gladstone was afraid to meet the 
House in debate upon the question. Mr. Glad- 
stone, rebuking Mr. Chaplain, said that it was the 
first time in a public career extending over nearly 
half a century, he had been accused of a disincli- 
nation to meet his opponents in a fair fight, and 
promised him that neither he nor his friends 
would have reason to complain of his reticence. 
Tories and Liberals knew he had not shrunk 
from meeting the public on this question. He 
was glad that there was a tremendous feeling 
abroad upon this Eastern question. He had 
been told that by the pamphlet he wrote and the 
speech he delivered, he had done all this mischief, 
and agitated Europe and the world ; but if that 
were the case why did not the honorable gentle- 
man, by writing another pamphlet, and delivering 
another speech, put the whole thing right ? If 
he (the speaker) had done anything, it was only 
in the same way that a man applies a match to 
an enormous mass of fuel already prepared. 
Mr. Gladstone closed with the following words : 
^'We have, I think, the most solemn and the 



The Eastern Question 435 

greatest question to determine that has come 
before Parliament in my time. * * * In the 
original entrance of the Turks into Europe, it 
may be said to have been a turning point in 
human history. To a great extent it continues 
to be the cardinal question, the question which 
casts into the shade every other question." 

April 24, 1877, war was declared by Russia 
against Turkey. The Czar issued a manifesto, 
assigning as reasons for this war the refusal of 
guarantee by the Porte for the proposed reforms, 
the failure of the Conference and the rejection of 
the Proteol signed on the previous 31st of March. 
England, France and Italy proclaimed their 
neutrality. Mr. Gladstone initiated a great 
debate in the House of Commons, May 7th, 
which lasted five days. He presented a series of 
resolutions expressing grave dissatisfaction with 
the policy of Turkey, and declared that she had 
forfeited all claim to support, moral and material. 
Mr. Gladstone asked whether, with regard to the 
great battle of freedom against oppression then 
going on, "we in England could lay our hands 
upon our hearts, and in the face of God and man, 
say, * We have well and sufficiently performed 
our part ? ' " 

These resolutions were of course hostile to 
the Government, and many Liberals refused to 
vote for them, because they pledged England to a 



436 William E. Gladstone 

policy of force in connection witli Russia. Be- 
sides the Government gave assurances to avail 
themselves of any opportunity of interposing 
their good offices. The resolutions consequently 
were lost. Mr. Gladstone was not quite the leader 
of his party again. 

Shortly after this debate, and before the 
close of the session, Mr. Gladstone addressed a 
large meeting at Birmingham on the Eastern 
question and the present condition of the Liberal 
party. Later on he visited Ireland. On his 
return he addressed, by their request, the people 
gathered to receive him. He expressed his 
belief that Turkey would have yielded to the 
concerted action of Europe ; noticed the change 
in the tone of the ministry from the omission in 
the Premier's speech of the phrase, ''the inde- 
pendence of Turkey ;" protested strongly against 
England being dragged into war, and warmly 
eulogized the non-conformists for the consistency 
and unanimity with which they had insisted on 
justice to the Eastern Christians. Political feel- 
ing entered into everything at this time, but 
as an evidence of the hold Mr. Gladstone re- 
tained in the Scottish heart, he was in Novem- 
ber elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University 
by a large majority. Lord Beaconsfield was the 
retiring Lord Rector, and the Conservatives 
nominated Sir S. Northcote, the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, as Mr. Gladstone's opponent. 



The Eastern question 437 

The war in the East went disastrously for 
the Ottoman arms. January 23, 1878, the Porte 
agreed to accept the terms of peace submitted 
by the Grand Duke Nicholas. 

Mr. Gladstone was invited January 30, 1878, 
to attend a meeting of undergraduates at 
Oxford, held to celebrate the formation of a 
Liberal Palmerston Club. He strongly con- 
demned the sending of the British fleet into 
the Dardanelles as a breach of European law ; 
and confessed that he had been an agitator for 
the past eighteen months, day and night, to 
counteract what he believed to be the evil 
purposes of Lord Beaconsfield. 

In February the House of Commons passed 
a vote of credit, but on the 3d of March a treaty 
of peace was signed between Turkey and 
Russia, at Sanstefano, the terms of which in 
part were : Turkey to pay a large war indem- 
nity ; Servia and Montenegro to be independent 
and to receive accessions of territory ; Bulgaria 
to be formed into a principality with greatly 
extended boundaries, and to be governed by a 
prince elected by the inhabitants ; the navigation 
of the Straits was declared free for merchant 
vessels, both in times of peace and war ; Russian 
troops to occupy Bulgaria for two years ; Batoum, 
Ardahan, Kars and Bayazid, with their territories, 
to be ceded to Russia, and Turkey to pay an 
indemnity to Roumania. The terms of the 



438 William E. Gladstone 

treaty were regarded oppressive to Turkey by 
the Beaconsfield Ministry, who proposed that 
the whole treaty be submitted to a congress at 
Berlin, to meet in June, 1878. The treaty was 
approved after some modifications. The English 
Plenipotentiaries were the Earl of Beaconsfield 
and Marquis of Salisbury, who, for their share 
in the treaty, received a popular ovation and 
rewards from the Queen. Thus was Turkey 
humiliated and Russia benefited, having obtained 
her demands. To the people assembled Lord 
Beaconsfield said from the window of the Foreign 
Office : " Lord Salisbury and myself have 
brought you back peace, but a peace, I hope 
with honor, which may satisfy our Sovereign 
and tend to the welfare of the country." But at 
this very time the envoy of Russia, whom the 
ministry thought to be circumvented, was enter- 
ing the Afghan capital ; so that, although there 
was peace on the Bosphorus, as a direct result of 
the Eastern policy, there was war in Afghan- 
istan. The Conservatives were very ready for 
awhile to use as a watchword the phrase, ^' Peace 
and Honor," but before long it became the occa- 
sion of ridicule. 

Parliament was called upon to appropriate 
;^8,ooo,ooo to defray the cost of the Afghan 
and Zulu wars. When Mr. Gladstone's govern- 
ment retired from office, there was a surplus of 
over ^3,000,000, but the budgets of 1878 and 



The Eastern Question 439 

1879 both showed large deficits. The people 
had applauded the "imperial policy," "the 
jingoism '^ of Lord Beaconsfield's administration 
during the past two or three years, but they 
were not so appreciative when they found it so 
costly a policy to themselves. The depression 
in business also had its effect upon the country. 
The unpopularity of the Liberal government, 
which culminated in its defeat in 1873, was 
now, in 1879, being shifted to their Conservative 
opponents, whose term of office was fast drawing 
to a close. 

" Mr. Gladstone's resolute and splendid hos- 
tility to Lord Beaconsfield's whole system of 
foreign policy restored him to his paramount 
place among English politicians. For four 
years — from 1876 to 1880 — he sustained the 
high and holy strife with an enthusiasm, a versa- 
tility, a courage and a resourcefulness which 
raised the enthusiasm of his followers to the 
highest pitch, and filled his guilty and baffled 
antagonists with a rage which wxnt near to 
frenzy. By frustrating Lord Beaconsfield's design 
of going to war on behalf of Turkey, he saved 
England from the indelible disgrace of a second 
and more gratuitous Crimea. But it was not 
only in Eastern Europe that his saving influence 
was felt. In Africa and India, and wherever 
British honor was involved, he was the resolute 
and unsparing enemy of that odious system of 



440 



William b. Gladstone 



bluster and swagger and migiit against right, 
on which Lord Beaconsfield and his colleagues 
bestowed the tawdry nickname of Imperialism." 




Mr. GLADSTONE ON HIS WAY HOME 



CHAPTER XVII 
MIDLOTHIAN AND THE SECOND PREMIERSHIP 

^^'T^HE leadership of tlie Liberal party liad, 
▼ J *u.po^ the retirement of Mr. Gladstone, 
^mF been turned over to Lord Hartington. 
His sympathies were upon the right 
side on the Eastern question, but he 
was a calm, slow-moving man. At the proper 
time he would have taken the right measures in 
Parliament, but the temper of the Liberal party 
and of the people demanded present action and 
emphatic speech, then Mr. Gladstone came to the 
rescue, and Lord Hartington found himself 
pushed aside. Mr. Gladstone was again in fact 
the leader of the Liberal party, whose standard 
he had carried aloft during those stirring times 
when the Eastern question was the all-absorbing 
topic of debate in Parliament and among the 
people of the land. The foreign policy of Lord 
Beaconsfield in 1878 and 1879 found a sleepless 
critic in Mr. Gladstone. 

The day after the Parliament of 1878 had 
adjourned for the Easter recess, it was announced 

441 



442 William E. Gladstone 

that the Ministry had ordered the Indian Govern- 
ment to dispatch 7000 native troops to the Island 
of Malta. The order occasioned much discus- 
sion — political, legal, and constitutional. It was 
warmly debated. It was thought that Lord 
Beaconsfield had transcended his powers and 
done what could be done only by a vote of 
Parliament. In the House of Commons Mr. 
Gladstone condemned the proceedings as uncon- 
stitutional, and pointed out the dangers of the 
Ministerial policy. Lord Beaconsfield received 
what he calculated upon — the support of the 
House. For a member to differ from his policy 
was almost to incur the imputation of disloyalty 
to Crown and country. Indeed, Mr. Gladstone 
was seriously accused of treason by a member of 
the House for an article in the Nineteenth Century. 
Mr. Gladstone undauntedly continued the 
contest. He addressed a meeting of Liberals in 
the Drill Hall, Bermondsey, July 20th, in which 
he said that the Dissolution of Parliament could 
not long be postponed, and urged the union and 
organization of all Liberals, and prompt measures 
to secure such representation as the Liberals 
deserved in the coming Parliament. Speaking of 
the Anglo-Turkish treaty, he pointed out the 
serious obligations which devolved upon England 
under it. He added, regarding the Turkish Con- 
tention, that, possibly it was necessary to sus- 
tain the credit of the country, but whether that 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 443 

credit should be sustained at sucH a price 
remained for the people to determine at the 
polls. He rejoiced that these most unwise, 
extravagant, unwarrantable, unconstitutional and 
dangerous proceedings had not been the work of 
the Liberal party, but he was grieved to think 
that any party should be found in England to 
perform such transactions. 

A great debate arose in the House of Com- 
mons, extending over the whole range of the 
Eastern question: The Treaty of Berlin, the 
Anglo-Turkish Convention, the acquisition of 
Cyprus, the claims of Greece, etc. It was begun 
by the Marquis of Hartington, who offered a 
resolution regretting the grave responsibilities the 
Ministry had assumed for England with no 
means of securing their fulfillment, and without 
the previous knowledge of Parliament. Mr. 
Gladstone's speech during this debate is described 
as " a long and eloquent address, unsurpassable 
for its comprehensive grasp of the subject, its 
lucidity, point, and the high tone which animated 
it throughout. '^ Mr. Gladstone denied that his 
strictures upon the Government in a speech made 
out of Parliament could be construed as Lord 
Beaconsfield had taken them as a personal attack 
and provocation. If criticism of this kind is 
prohibited the doors of the House might as well 
be shut. He observed that, " Liberty of speech 
is the liberty which secures all other liberties, 



444 William E. Gladstone 

and the abridgment of which would render all 
other liberties vain and useless possessions. '^ In 
discussing the Congress at Berlin, Mr. Gladstone 
said, that he could not shut his eyes to the fact 
that the Sclavs, looking to Russia had been freed, 
while the Greeks, looking to England, remained 
with all their aspirations unsatisfied ; that Russia 
had secured much territory and large indemnity, 
with the sanction of Europe ; that the English 
Plenipotentiaries at the Congress, Lord Salisbury 
and Lord Beaconsfield, as a general rule, took the 
side of servitude, and that opposed to freedom. 

With regard to the English responsibilities 
in Asiatic Turkey put upon England at the 
Convention, he called them an " unheard of,'' 
and ^' mad-undertaking," accomplished '^ in the 
dark," by the present Ministry. Dealing with 
the treaty-making power of the country, he 
claimed that it rested with Parliament in conjunc- 
tion with the Executive. The strength and the 
eloquence were on the side of the opposition, but 
the votes were for the Government. The resolu- 
tions of Lord Hartington were defeated, and the 
'' imperial policy" of the Ministry was sustained. 
The Spectator said, that, '' Reason, prudence, and 
patriotism have hardly ever in our times been 
voted down with so little show of argument, and 
even of plausible suggestion." 

The next step taken by the Ministry was to 
undertake war with Afghanistan, in hopes of 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 445 

checking tlie advances of Russia in that direc- 
tion and of redressing grievances. England 
accomplished her purpose, in part, but greatly 
suffered for her exploit. Mr. Gladstone could 
not remain quiet under the " adventurous policy '' 
of the Premier. He condemned the ministerial 
policy which had made the Queen an Empress, 
then manipulated the prerogative in a manner 
wholly unexampled in this age, and employed it 
in inaugurating policies about which neither 
the nation nor the Parliament had ever been con- 
sulted. But arguments were of no avail. The 
Conservative majority in Parliament had im- 
bibed the idea that the honor of England had to 
be protected. Some thought it had never been 
assailed, but Lord Beaconsfield declared it was 
in peril, and men and money were voted to 
defend it. ^' So the order was given for distant 
peoples to be attacked, English blood to be 
spilled, the burdens of the people, already too 
heavy, to be swollen, and the future liabilities of 
this country to be enormously increased." 

In November, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, 
Lord Beaconsfield, speaking of Eastern affairs, 
said that the Government was not afraid of any 
invasion of India by its northwestern frontier ; 
but the frontier was ^' haphazard and not a scien- 
tific one," and the Government wanted a satis- 
factory frontier. Mr. Gladstone, in a letter to 
the Bedford Liberal Association, asked : " What 



446 William E. Gladstone 

right liave we to annex by war, or to menace tHe 
territory of our neighbors, in order to make 
* scientific ' a frontier which is already safe ?" 

In the autumn of 1879 ^^« Gladstone, 
having resolved to retire from the representation 
of Greenwich at the next election, paid a fare- 
well visit to, his constituents. At a luncheon 
given by the Liberal Association he dwelt upon 
the necessity of a Liberal union. The Liberals 
had, owing to their dissensions, given twenty-six 
votes to their opponents in 1874, while the 
Government had been carried on for years by a 
Conservative majority of less than twenty-six, 
showing the importance of organization. At 
night Mr. Gladstone attended a great public 
meeting in the Plumstead Skating Rink. On 
his entrance the whole audience rose and cheered 
for several minutes. An address was presented, 
expressing regret at his retirement, and the 
pride they would ever feel at having been associ- 
ated with his name and fame. Mr. Gladstone 
alluded to Lord Beaconsfield's phrase respecting 
" harrassed interests," and said he knew of only 
one harrassed interest, and that was the British 
nation. He protested against the words " personal 
government " being taken to imply that the 
Sovereign desired to depart from the traditions 
of the constitution, yet he charged the advisers 
of the Crown with having invidiously begun a 
system intended to narrow the liberties of the 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 447 

people of England and to reduce Parliament to 
the condition of the French Parliaments before 
the great Revolution. 

Mr. Gladstone threw the whole responsibility 
of the Afghan war on the Ministry, and main- 
taining that England had departed from the 
customs of the forefathers, concluded as follows: 
"It is written in the eternal laws of the 
universe of God that sin shall be followed by 
suffering. An unjust war is a tremendous sin. 
The question which you have to consider is 
whether this war is just or unjust. So far as I 
am able to collect the evidence, it is unjust." 

In December, 1878, the following resolution 
was offered in the House of Commons : " That 
this House disapproves the conduct of her 
Majesty's Government, which has resulted in 
the war with Afghanistan." Mr. Gladstone 
strongly condemned the war with Afghanistan 
and the irritating policy towards the Ameer, 
and concluded his address with the following 
eloquent responses to the historical and moral 
aspects of the Afghan difficulty: "You have 
made this war in concealment from Parliament, 
in reversal of the policy of every Indian and 
Home Government that has existed for the last 
twenty-five years, in contempt of the suppli- 
cation of the Ameer and in defiance of the 
advice of your own agent, and all for the sake 
of obtaining a scientific frontier." This powerful 



448 WILLIAM E. Gladstone 

speech greatly impressed, for tHe moment, both 
parties in the House, but the vote of censure 
was defeated, and the policy of the administra- 
tion was endorsed. During the debate Mr. Lat- 
ham made a witty comparison. He said that the 
Cabinet reminded him of the gentleman, who 
seeing his horses run away, and being assured 
by the coachman that they must drive into 
something, replied, ^^ Then smash into something 
cheap !" 

The Ministry presented a motion that the 
revenues of India should be applied for the pur- 
poses of the war. Mr. Gladstone observed that 
it was the people of England who had had all the 
glory and all the advantage which resulted from 
the destruction of the late administration, and 
the accession of the present Cabinet ; and hence 
it was the people who must measure the pros 
and the cons^ and who must be content, after hav- 
ing reaped such innumerable benefits, to encounter 
the disadvantage of meeting charges which 
undoubtedly the existing government would leave 
behind it as a legacy to posterity. England 
gained her end in the humiliation of Russia, but 
there were those who felt that the result of the 
English policy would further the advance of 
Russia in Europe, and that force would never 
make friends of the Afghans. 

In the sessions of 1879 the Greek question 
came up in the House of Commons on a motion, 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 449 

" That, in the opinion of this House, tranquillity 
in the East demands that satisfaction be given 
to the just claims of Greece, and no satisfaction 
can be considered adequate that does not ensure 
execution of the recommendations embodied in 
Protocol 13 of the Berlin Congress." Mr. Glad- 
stone hoped that even in the present House there 
would be found those who would encourage the 
first legitimate aspirations of the Hellenic races 
after freedom. The government had given 
pledges to advance the claims of Greece that had 
not been redeemed at Berlin. Not one of the 
European powers was now averse to the claims 
of the Greek kingdom, whose successful plead- 
ings depended wholly upon England for favorable 
answer. But the government objected, and the 
motion was rejected. In July, Sir Charles Dilke 
called the attention of the House to the obliga- 
tions of Turkey under the Treaty of Berlin, when 
Mr. Gladstone again earnestly enforced the 
claims of " Greece, weak as she may be, is yet 
strong in the principles in which she rests." 

December 29, 1879, Mr. Gladstone attained 
the seventieth year of his age. His friends in 
Liverpool, and the Greenwich Liberal Association 
presented him with congratulatory addresses. 
The journals paid him warm tributes for his long 
and eminent public services. But few thought 
that the veteran that had so successfully gone 
through one electoral campaign was destined in 



450 William E. Gladstone 

a few montlis to pass througli anotlier, still more 
remarkable, and yet be fresb for new triumphs. 

In tbe autumn of 1879 ■^^* Gladstone 
resolved upon a very important, and as his 
enemies thought, a hopeless step. He had 
retired from the representation of Greenwich, and 
he now boldly decided to contest the election for 
Midlothian, the county of Edinburgh. He con- 
sequently proceeded to Scotland, in November, 
where such an ovation was given him as has 
never been accorded to any man in modern times. 
During the period of three weeks he addressed 
meetings numbering seventy-five thousand peo- 
ple, while a quarter of a million of people, with 
every exhibition of good-will and admiration, 
took part in some way in the demonstration in 
his honor. In this canvass of delivering political 
speeches he performed an oratorical and in- 
tellectual feat unparalleled in the history of any 
statesman who had attained his seventieth year. 
Mr. Gladstone addressed large concourses of 
people. When he reached Edinburgh, ^' his 
progress was as the progress of a nation's guest, 
or a king returning to his own again." 

Midlothian, the scene of Mr. Gladstone's 
astonishing exertions, was one of the Conserva- 
tive strongholds, under the dominent influence 
of the Duke of Buccleuch, whose son. Lord 
Dalkeith, Mr. Gladstone opposed in contesting 






n 




Midlothian and the Second Premiership 453 

for the representation in Parliament. Mr. Glad- 
stone said: " Being a man of Scotcli blood, I am 
very much attached to Scotland, and like even 
the Scottish accent," and he afterwards said, 
^' and Scotland showed herself equally proud of 
her son." He spoke at Edinburgh, November 
26th, and on the following day at Dalkeith, in 
the very heart of the Duke of Buccleuch's own 
property to an audience of three thousand 
people, mostly agriculturists. At Edinburgh he 
met nearly five thousand persons at the Corn 
Exchange, representing more than one hundred 
Scottish Liberal Associations. In the Waverley 
Market Mr. Gladstone addressed more than 
twenty thousand people, one of the largest con- 
gregations ever assembled in-doors in Scotland, 
and met with a reception which for enthusiasm 
was in keeping with the vastness of the audience. 
December 5th, at Glasgow, he delivered his 
address as Lord Rector to the students of the 
University, and in the evening addressed an 
immense audience of nearly six thousand in 
St. Andrew's Hall. He was most enthusiasti- 
cally received, and he dwelt chiefly on Cyprus, 
the Suez Canal, India, and Afghanistan. " We 
had Afghanistan ruined," he urged, " India not 
advanced, but thrown back in government, sub- 
jected to heavy and unjust charges, subjected 
to what might well be termed, in comparison 
with the mild government of former years, a 



454 William E. Gladstone 

system of oppression ; and with all this we had 
at home the law broken and the rights of Parlia- 
ment invaded." 

On the 8th of March, 1880, the immediate 
dissolution of Parliament was announced in both 
Houses of Parliament, and the news created 
intense political excitement and activity through- 
out the land. In his manifesto, in the shape of 
a letter to the Duke of Marlborough, the Prime 
Minister referred to the attempt made to sever 
the constitutional tie between Great Britain and 
Ireland, and said : '' It is to be hoped that all 
men of light and leading will resist this destruc- 
tive doctrine. There are some who challenge 
the expediency of the Imperial character of this 
realm. Having attempted and failed to enfeeble 
our colonies by their policy of decomposition, 
they may now perhaps recognize in the disinte- 
gration of the United Kingdom a mode which 
will not only accomplish, but precipitate, that 
purpose. Peace rests on the presence, not to 
say the ascendency, of England in the councils 
of Europe." 

Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington issued 
their counter-manifestoes. Mr. Gladstone repu- 
diated Lord Beaconsfield's dark allusion to' the 
repeal of the union and the abandonment of 
the colonies, characterizing them as base insinu- 
ations, the real purpose of which was to hide 
from view the policy pursued by the Ministry, 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 455 

and its effect upon the condition of tlie country ; 
and saiQ that public distress liad been aggravated 
by continual shocks from neglected legislation 
at home, '^ while abroad they had strained the 
prerogative by gross misuse, had weakened the 
Empire by needless wars, and dishonored it in 
the eyes of Europe by their clandestine acquisi- 
tion of the Island of Cyprus." 

Mr. Gladstone began the electoral cam- 
paign with a speech at Marylebone on the loth 
of March, in which he announced Lord Derby's 
secession from the Conservative to the Liberal 
party ; and then he left London to enter upon 
his second Midlothian campaign. At various 
points on the journey Mr. Gladstone stopped 
and addressed the people from the cars, and it is 
a remarkable fact that wherever he delivered an 
address the Liberals gained a seat. 

The first address made by Mr. Gladstone 
on his own account, was delivered on the 17th of 
March, in the Music Hall, Edinburgh. After 
dwelling at great length upon various questions 
of foreign policy, he concluded with the following 
references personal to his opponents and himself: 
^' I give them credit for patriotic motives ; I give 
them credit for those patriotic motives which are 
incessantly and gratuitously denied to us. I 
believe that we are all united, gentlemen — indeed 
it would be most unnatural if we were not — in a 
fond attachment, perhaps in something of a 



456 William E. Gladstone 

proud attachment, to the great country to which 
we belong." 

In his final speech at West Calder Mr. 
Gladstone drew a powerful indictment against 
the administration, and placed the issue before 
the country in a strong light. Throughout all 
the campaign, as the time for the general 
election was approaching, only one question was 
submitted to the electors, " Do you approve or 
condemn Lord Beaconsfield's system of foreign 
policy ?" And the answer was given at Easter, 
1880, when the Prime Minister and his colleagues 
received the most emphatic condemnation which 
had ever been bestowed upon an English Govern- 
ment, and the Liberals were returned in an over- 
whelming majority of fifty over Tories and 
Home Rulers combined. Mr. Gladstone suc- 
ceeded in ousting Lord Dalkeith from the repre- 
sentation of Midlothian by a respectable 
majority. He was also elected at Leeds, but 
this seat was afterwards given to his son, 
Herbert Gladstone. At the conclusion of the 
election all the journals joined in admiring the 
indomitable energy and vigor of the orator, 
who could carry out this great enterprise when 
he had already passed the age of three-score 
years and ten. Edinburgh was illuminated in 
the evening, and everywhere were to be 
witnessed signs of rejoicing at Mr. Gladstone's 
victory. The result of the elections throughout 




Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India. 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 459 

the country exceeded the most sanguine expec- 
tations of the Liberals. So large a proportion 
of Liberal members had not been returned to 
the House of Commons since the days of the 
first Reform Bill. 

Lord Beaconsfield, as soon as the result of 
the election was known, and without waiting for 
the meeting 6f Parliament, resigned. The 
Queen, in conformity with the constitutional 
custom, summoned Lord Hartington, the titular 
leader of the Liberal party in the House of 
Commons, to form a cabinet. But he could do 
nothing. Then the Queen sent for Lord Gran- 
ville, who with Lord Hartington, went to Wind- 
sor April 23d. They both assured the Queen 
that the victory was Mr. Gladstone's ; that the 
people had designated him for office, and that 
the Liberal party would be satisfied with no 
other, and that he was the inevitable Prime 
Minister. They returned to London in the 
afternoon, sought Mr. Gladstone at Harley 
Street, where he was awaiting the message they 
brought from the Queen — to repair to Windsor. 
That evening, without an hour's delay, he went 
to Windsor, kissed hands, and returned to 
London Prime Minister for the second time. 

Mr. Gladstone again filled the double office of 
Premier and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 
new cabinet, which for general ability and debat- 
ing power was one of the strongest of the 



45o William E. Gladstone 

century. Wliile some of the cabinet officers 
were like Mr. Gladstone himself, without title, 
others were representatives of the oldest nobility 
of the land. At the very beginning the new 
administration were confronted by perplexing 
questions. The Eastern question, chiefly by 
Mr. Gladstone's influence, had been settled in 
accordance with the dictates of •humanity and 
religion. But there were other difficulties to be 
overcome. ^' At home, his administration did good 
and useful work, including the extension of the 
suffrage to the agricultural laborers ; but it was 
seriously, and at length fatally, embarrassed by 
two controversies which sprang up with little 
warning, and found the Liberal party and its 
leaders totally unprepared to deal with them." 

The first embarrassing question which arose 
when the new Parliament met was the great 
deficit of nine million pounds instead of an ex- 
pected surplus in the Indian Budget, owing to 
the Afghan war. 

Foremost among the difficulties encoun- 
tered was the case of Mr. Charles Bradlaugh, 
elected a member of Parliament for Northamp- 
ton. He demanded to be permitted to make a 
solemn affirmation or declaration of allegiance, 
instead of taking the usual oath. The question 
created much discussion and great feeling, and 
Mr. Bradlaugh' s persistence was met by violence. 
Mr. Bright contended for liberty of conscience. 



MlDLOTHIAiN AND THE SECOND PREMIERSHIP* 461 

Mr. Gladstone favored permitting Mr. Brad- 
laugh to affirm on his own responsibility which 
was finally done, but Mr. Bradlaugh was prose- 
cuted in the courts. The great difficulty arose 
from Mr. Bradlaugh's atheism. 

A considerable share of the session of 1880 
was occupied in the consideration of the Irish 
Compensation for Disturbance Bill and other 
Irish measures. In consequence of the rapid 
increase of evictions by landlords, this protective 
measure had become absolutely necessary in 
the interests of the Irish tenants. After pro- 
longed debate — very prolonged for so short a 
bill — thirty-five lines only — the bill was passed 
by the Commons, but defeated by the Lords. 
The result was "seen in a ghastly record of 
outrage and murder which stained the following 
winter." 

Home Rule for Ireland, which movement 
was started in the "seventies," was gaining 
ground, and every election returned to the 
House more members pledged to its support. 
Those who were bent upon obtaining Home Rule 
at any cost used obstructive means against other 
legislation to gain their object, but as yet the 
movement was confined to the members who had 
been elected by Irish constituents. 

About the close of the session of 1880 the 
heavy burdens and responsibilities of public ser- 
vice borne by Mr. Gladstone began to tell upon 



462 WILL! AM E. Gladstone 

him. At the end of July, while returning from 
home for the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone 
was taken ill. He was prostrated by fever and 
great fears for his recovery were entertained by 
his family, his party and a host of admirers 
throughout the country. A great outburst of 
popular sympathy was manifested and frequent 
messages were received from the Queen and many 
foreign potentates and celebrities. Distinguished 
callers and telegrams continued to arrive at 
Downing Street for ten days while the patient 
was confined to his bed at home. The President 
of the United States and the King and Queen 
of the Belgians were among those who sent 
messages of sympathy. *' Rarely indeed, if ever, 
has there been witnessed such a general and 
spontaneous expression of the national sympathy 
towards a distinguished statesman whose life had 
been imperilled by illness." 

Mr. Gladstone's large store of vital energy 
brought him safely through his dangerous 
illness and on approaching convalescence he 
took a sea voyage round the entire coast of 
England in Sir Donald Currie's steamer, 
"Grantully Castle." 

Three years after this voyage around Eng- 
land the Premier visited the Orkneys on a similar 
trip, in the '^ Pembroke Castle," the poet laure- 
ate being of the party on this occasion. From 
the Orkneys he sailed across to Denmark and 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 463 

suddenly appeared at Copenhagen, where Mr. 
Gladstone entertained the Czar and Czarina, the 
King of Greece, and the King and Queen of 
Denmark, and many others of their relatives 
who happened to be visiting them at that time. 

A great meeting was held June 21, 1880, in 
Her Majesty's opera house, for the purpose of 
presenting an address from the Liberals of 
Middlesex to Mr. Herbert Gladstone, who had 
made a gallant contest in that country at the 
general election. The entrance of the Premier 
some time after the meeting began was the 
signal for an outburst of enthusiasm. Before 
Mr. Gladstone appeared, the chairman, Mr. 
Foster, had paid a high tribute to the Premier for 
his great abilities and his self-denial in the 
public service. After his son had received the 
address, the Premier arose to speak, when the 
whole audience arose to their feet and welcomed 
him with immense cheering. 

Mr. Gladstone referred at length to the 
Midlothian campaign, and paid a tribute to the 
spirit and energy of the Liberals of the whole 
country. The sound which went forth from 
Midlothian reverberated through the land and 
was felt to be among the powerful operative 
causes which led to the great triumph of the 
Liberal party. 

At the Lord Mayor's banquet, November 9, 
1880, Mr. Gladstone's speech was looked forward 



464 William E. Gladstone 

to witH much, anxiety, owing to tlie singularly 
disturbed condition of Ireland. Referring to tlie 
^' party of disorder "in Ireland, lie said tHat as 
anxious as tlie government was to pass laws for 
the improvement of the land laws, their prior 
duty was to so enforce the laws as to secure 
order. If an increase of power was needed to 
secure this, they would not fail to ask it. 

In 1 88 1, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, 
Mr. Gladstone said that he was glad to discern 
signs of improvement in Ireland during the last 
twelve months ; but the struggle between the 
representatives of law and the representatives of 
lawlessness had rendered necessary an augmen- 
tation of the executive power. 

In August, 1 88 1, at Greenwich, the Liberals 
of the borough presented Mr. Gladstone with an 
illustrated address and a carved oak chair as a 
token of their esteem and a souvenir of his 
former representation of their borough. On the 
cushion back df the chair were embossed in gold 
the arms of Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, with a 
motto ^' Fide et Virtute," and above, in the 
midst of some wood-carving representing the 
rose, the thistle, the shamrock, and the leek, was 
a silver plate, bearing a suitable inscription. 

The Parliamentary session of 1881 was 
almost exclusively devoted to Irish affairs. In- 
stead of the contemplated Land Act, the 
ministry were compelled, on account of the 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 465 

disturbed condition of Ireland, to bring in first 
a Coercion Act, altbougb the measure was 
naturally distasteful to sucb friends of Ireland 
in tbe Cabinet as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Brigbt. 
Property and life bad become very insecure, and 
tbere was a startling increase of agrarian crime 
tbat sucb a measure was deemed necessary. 
But wbile passing tbe Coercion Act, Mr. Glad- 
stone accompanied it by a great and beneficial 
measure — a second Irisb Land Bill, wbicb insti- 
tuted a court for tbe purpose of dealing witb tbe 
differences between landlord and tenant. 

Tbis bill — one of Mr. Gladstone's greatest 
measures— became a law August 23, 1881. 
Mr. Gladstone in bis speecb remarked tbat 
tbe complaint was made tbat tbe bill was 
an infringement of liberty in Ireland and was 
aimed at tbe Land League, but no person or 
body could be toucbed by tbe bill unless tbey 
violated tbe law, and tben could only be arrested 
upon reasonable suspicion of crime committed or 
of inciting to crime or of interfering witb law 
or order. Tbere would be tbe fullest freedom of 
discussion allowed. Dealing witb tbe Land 
League be said it bad been attempted to compare 
it witb tbe Corn Laws, but Mr. Brigbt bad com- 
pletely demolisbed tbat miserable argument. 
It was compared also to tbe trade unions, but 
tbey made an onward step in tbe intelligence 
and in tbe love of law and order among tbe 



466 William E. Gladstone 

working classes. They had. never tainted them- 
selves by word or deed which would bring them 
into suspicion in connection with the mainten- 
ance of law. The leaders of the Land League 
were now put forward as martyrs on the same 
platform as O'Connell ; but on every occasion of 
his life-long agitation O'Connell set himself to 
avoid whatever might tend to a breach of law 
and order. Then Mr. Gladstone showed the 
necessity of the Coercion Act from the condition 
of Ireland, where during the past year there 
had been a great increase of crime, and the out- 
rages were agrarian, and not connected with the 
distress. It was a significant fact that the 
agrarian outrages had risen and fallen with the 
meetings of the Land League. Nothing could be 
more idle than to confound the agrarian crime of 
Ireland with the ordinary crime of England, or 
even of Ireland. In regard to general crime, 
Ireland held a high and honorable place, but how 
different was the case with agrarian crime ! He 
referred to the miscarriage of justice in Ireland, 
and said that the bill, if passed, would restore to 
Ireland the first conditions of Christian and 
civilized existence. But it ^' only irritated while 
it failed to terrify." 

Mr. Gladstone's was a great speech and 
showed his mastery of details, and his power of 
expounding and illustrating broad and general 




Gladstone and His Son Heebeet. 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 469 

principles. He began Hs exposition by con- 
fessing that it was the most difficult question 
with wbicb be bad ever been called upon to 
deal. He concluded witb an eloquent invocation 
to justice. 

On tbe iQtb of April, 1881, Lord Beacons- 
field died. For many years be and Mr. Glad- 
stone bad been at tbe bead of tbeir respective 
parties. "Tbeir opposition, as one critic bas 
well and tersely put it, like tbat of Pitt and 
Fox, was one of temperament and cbaracter 
as well as of genius, position and political opin^ 
ions." Tbe Premier paid an eloquent tribute to 
him and proposed a public funeral, wbicb was 
declined. Mr. Gladstone tben moved for a monu- 
ment in Westminster Abbey to tbe memory of 
tbe deceased Earl. 

In October, 1881, Mr. Gladstone made a 
visit to Leeds, for wbicb borougb be was 
returned in 1880, but for wbicb bis son Herbert 
sat. He delivered several important addresses 
on subjects wbicb tben absorbed tbe public 
attention, especially dealing witb tbe land 
question local government, and Free Trade 
versus Fair Trade. Mr. Gladstone said : 

" My boybood was spent at tbe moutb of 
tbe Mersey, and in tbose days I used to see 
tbose beautiful American liners, tbe packets 
between New York and Liverpool, wbicb tben 
conducted the bulk and tbe pick of tbe trade 



470 William E. Gladstone 

between the two countries. The Americans 
were then deemed to be so entirely superior to 
us in shipbuilding and navigation that they had 
four-fifths of t he whole trade between the two 
countries in their hands, and that four-fifths 
was the best of the trade. What is the case 
now, when free trade has operated and has 
applied its stimulus to the intelligence of Eng- 
land, and when, on the other hand, the action 
of the Americans has been restrained by the 
enactment, the enhancement and the tighten- 
ing of the protective system ? The scales are 
exactly reversed, and instead of America doing 
four-fifths and that the best, we do four-fifths of 
the business, and the Americans pick up the 
leavings of the British and transact the residue 
of the trade. Not because they are inferior to 
us in anything ; it would be a fatal error to 
suppose it ; not because they have less intelli- 
gence or less perseverance. They are your 
descendants ; they are your kinsmen ; and they 
are fully equal to you in all that goes to make 
human energy and power ; but they are labor- 
ing under the delusion from which you your- 
selves have but recently escaped, and in which 
some misguided fellow-citizens seek again to 
entangle you. 

" I am reminded that I was guilty on a cer- 
tain occasion of stating in an article — not a 
political article — that, in my opinion, it was far 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 471 

from improbable tbat as the volume of the 
future was unrolled, America, with its vast 
population and its wonderful resources, and not 
less with that severe education which, from the 
high price of labor, America is receiving in the 
strong necessity of resorting to every descrip- 
tion of labor-saving contrivances, and conse- 
quent development, not only on a large scale, 
but down to the smallest scale of mechanical 
genius of the country — on that account the day 
may come when that country may claim to pos- 
sess the commercial primacy of the world, I 
gave sad offence to many. I at present will say 
this, that as long as America adheres to the 
protective system your commercial primacy is 
secure. Nothing in the world can wrest it from 
you while America continues to fetter her own 
strong hands and arms, and with these fettered 
arms is content to compete with you, who are 
free, in neutral markets. And as long as 
America follows the doctrine of protection, or 
the doctrines now known as those of ^fair 
trade,' you are perfectly safe, and you need not 
allow, any of you, even your slightest slumbers 
to be disturbed by the fear that America will 
take from you your commercial primacy." 

After his return to London Mr. Gladstone 
received an address from the Corporation, setting 
forth the long services he had rendered to 
the country. Mr. Gladstone, in his reply, 



472 William E. Gladstone 

touclied upon IrisH obstruction, and announced, 
incidentally, tlie arrest of Mr. Parnell. Mr. Par- 
nell, the leader of tlie Irish, party, having openly 
defied the law, had been arrested and imprisoned 
without trial, under the Coercion Act, passed 
at the last session. 

On the opening night of the Parliament, 
of 1882, Mr. Gladstone laid before the House 
the proposed new rules of Parliamentary pro- 
cedure. The cloture^ by a bare majority, was 
to be established, in order to secure the power 
of closing debate by a vote of the House. 

The House of Lords decided upon the 
appointment of a Select Committee to inquire 
into the working of the Land Act, including the 
alleged total collapse of the clauses relating to 
purchase, emigration, and arrears. The Prime 
Minister in the House of Commons introduced a 
resolution condemning the proposed inquiry as 
tending to defeat the operation of the Land Act 
and as injurious to the good government of 
Ireland. 

Early in May, 1882, the whole country was 
startled and terrified by the news of the assassi- 
nation of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the new 
chief secretary for Ireland, and Mr. Burke 
under-secretary, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. A 
social revolution was raging in Ireland. Out- 
rages and murders had been fearfully frequent, 
and such brutal murders as those of Mrs, 



Midlothian and the Second Premiership 473 

Smythe and Mr. Herbert had filled England 
witli terror. In tHe first week of May announce- 
ment was made that Earl Cowper had resigned 
the Viceroyalty . Rather than share the respon- 
sibility of releasing Mr. Parnell, Mr, Dillon and 
Mr. O'Kelly, Mr, Forster left the Cabinet. 
Lord Spencer was appointed to the Viceroyalty, 
and Lord Frederick Cavendish succeeded 
Mr. Forster, and two days thereafter all 
England was thrilled with sorrow and indigna- 
tion by the terrible news of the assassination in 
Phoenix Park. The news shattered the hopes of 
many concerning Ireland, and fell with special 
severity upon Mr. Gladstone, because he and 
Lord Cavendish enjoyed the closest friendship. 
The government presented a Prevention of 
Crimes Bill of a very stringent character. In 
the course of debate warm discussions arose 
over an " understanding " called, " The Kil- 
mainham Compact," but Mr. Gladstone success- 
fully defended the government in regard to its 
supposed negotiations with Mr. Parnell. This 
bill was directed against secret societies and 
illegal combinations, and it was hoped that as 
the Land League party had expressed its horror 
at the Phoenix Park crime, and charged that it 
was the work of American conspirators, they 
would allow the measure speedily to become 
law. Mr. Bright declared that the bill would 
harm no innocent person, and explained bis 0^^^ 



474 



William E. Gladstone 



doctrine, tliat " Force is no remedy," was 
intended to apply not to outrages, but to griev- 
ances. For three weeks Mr. Parnell and Ws 
followers obstructed legislation in every con- 
ceivable way, and were finally suspended for 
systematic obstructioUo The obstructionists 
removed, the bill was then passed, after a sitting 
of twenty-eight hours. The measure was passed 
by the Lords July 7th, and the Queen signed 
the bill July 12th. A crisis nearly arose between 
the Lords and the Commons over the Irish 
Arrears Bill, but the Lords finally yielded. 



•-■ * 



: A:^*^, 




Galleby of the House of Commons. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Third Administration and Home Rule 

/IT is our purpose next to trace the events 
^^y that led to the overthrow of the Second 
^^ Administration of Mr. Gladstone, and 
to the formation of his Third Cabinet. 
The question that seemed to begin the 
work of weakening the foundations of his exist- 
ing government was their policy in regard to 
Egypt, which began with the occupation of 
Egypt in 1882. 

The budget of the session of 1882 was 
presented by Mr. Gladstone April 24th. It was 
not expected that anything novel in the way of 
legislation would be attempted in it. But its 
main interest was in this, that it proposed a vote 
of credit for the Egyptian Expedition, which was 
to be provided for by addition to the income-tax, 
making it sixpence half-penny in the pound for 
the year. The financial proposals were agreed 
to. In the course of the session Mr. Bright 
resigned his place in the Cabinet on the ground 

475 



4/6 William e. Gladstone 

that the intervention in Egypt was a manifest 
violation of the moral law, that the Government 
had interfered by force of arms in Egypt, and 
directed the bombardment of Alexandria. Mr. 
Gladstone denied that the Ministry were at war 
with Egypt, and stated that the measures taken at 
Alexandria were strictly measures of self-defence. 
In justifying his resignation Mr. Bright said 
there had been a manifest violation of the moral 
law ; but the Premier, while agreeing with his 
late colleague generally on the question of the 
moral law differed from him as to this particular 
application of it. 

The Prime Minister attended the Lord 
Mayor's Banquet at the Mansion House, August 9, 
1882. In replying to the toast to Her Majesty's 
Ministers, after some, preliminary remarks, Mr. 
Gladstone alluded to the campaign in Egypt, 
which had been so much discussed, and said : 
^' Let it be well understood for what we go and 
for what we do not go to Egypt. We do not go 
to make war on its people, but to rescue them 
from the oppression of a military tyranny which 
at present extinguishes every free voice and 
chains every man of the people of that country. 
We do not go to make war on the Mohammedan 
religion, for it is amongst the proudest distinc- 
tions of Christianity to establish tolerance, and 
we know that wherever the British rule exists, 
the same respect which we claim for the exercise 




IBISH Leadees of the Gladstonian Epoch. 



Third Administration and Home Rule 479 

of our own conscientious convictions is yielded to 
the professors of every other faith on the surface of 
the globe. We do not, my Lord Mayor, go to 
repress the growth of Egyptian liberties. We 
wish them well ; for we have no other interest in 
Egypt, which cannot in any other way so well and 
so effectually attain her own prosperity as by the 
enjoyment of a well regulated, and an expand- 
ing freedom." 

Mr. Gladstone's confidence respecting the 
early termination of the war in Egypt was 
somewhat justified by Sir Garnet Wolseley's 
victory at Tel-el-Kebir, but the future relations 
of England with Egypt were still left an open 
subject of discussion and speculation. Again, 
November 9th, at the banquet at the Guild- 
hall, to the Cabinet Ministers, Mr. Gladstone 
spoke. He called attention to the settlement of 
the troubles in the East of Europe, congratulating 
his hearers on the removal by the naval and 
military forces of the Egyptian dif&culty, and 
calling attention to Ireland, compared its condition 
with that of the previous March and October, 
1 88 1, showing a diminution of agrarian crime to 
the extent of four-fifths. This happy result had 
been brought about, not by coercive means alone, 
but by the exercise of remedial measures. " If 
the people of Ireland were willing to walk in 
the ways of legality, England was strong, and 
generous, and free enough to entertain in a 



48o William E. Gladstone 

friendly and kindly spirit any demand wHcli 
they might make.'' 

On the 13th of December, 1882, Mr. Glad- 
stone's political jubilee was celebrated. Fifty 
years before, on that day, he had been returned 
to Parliament as member for Newark. A large 
number of congratulatory addresses, letters, and 
telegrams complimenting him on the completion 
of his fifty years of parliamentary service were 
received by him. He had entered the first 
Reformed Parliament as a conservative, had 
gone ever forward in the path of reform, and 
was yet to lead in greater measures of reform. 

The excellent prospects regarding domestic 
measures with which the session of 1883 was 
opened were dispelled by prolonged and fruitless 
debates on measures proposed and on the address 
from the Queen. But Mr. Gladstone was absent, 
the state of his health requiring him to pass 
several weeks at Cannes. He returned home in 
March greatly invigorated^ and at once threw 
himself with wonted ardour into the parliamentary 
conflict. Mr. Parnell offered a bill to amend the 
Irish Land Act of 1887, which was opposed by 
the Premier and lost. 

An affirmation bill was introduced at this 
session by the Government, which provided that 
members who objected to taking the oath might 
have the privilege of affirming. The opposition 
spoke of the measure as a " Bradlaugh Relief 



Third Administration and Home Rule 481 

Bill." Its rejection was moved, and in its defense 
Mr. Gladstone made one of his best speeches, 
which was warmly applauded. He said ; " I must 
painfully record my opinion, that grave injury 
has been done to religion in many minds — not in 
instructed minds, but in those which are ill-in- 
structed or partially instructed — in consequence 
of things which ought never to have occurred. 
Great mischief has been done in many minds by 
a resistance offered to the man elected by the con- 
stituency of Northampton, which a portion of the 
people believe to be unjust. When they see the 
profession of religion and the interests of re- 
ligion, ostensibly associated with what they are 
deeply convinced is injustice, it leads to questions 
about religion itself, which commonly end in 
impairing those convictions, and that belief, the 
loss of which I believe to be the most inexpressi- 
ble calamity which can fall either upon a man or 
upon a nation." But the measure was lost. 

During the session of 1883 the Bankruptcy 
Bill and the Patents Bill were both passed, and 
effected reforms which had long been felt to be 
necessary. The Corrupt Practices Act was de- 
signed to remove from British parliamentary and 
borough elections the stigma which attached to 
them in so many parts of the country. The 
Government was checked, however, in its policy 
in the Transvaal, and Mr. Childers' action in 
regard to the Suez Canal. 



482 William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Gladstone attended, in March, tHe cele- 
bration of the inauguration of the National Liberal 
party, predicting for it a useful and brilliant 
future, if it remained faithful to its time-honored 
principles and traditions. 

Sir Stafford Northcote, in the session of 1884, 
moved a vote of censure, and vigorously attacked 
the Egyptian policy of the administration. Mr. 
Gladstone defended the ministerial action with 
spirit and effect. He declared that the Govern- 
ment had found, and not made, the situation in 
Egypt and the Soudan. The Prime Minister 
" traced all the mischief to Lord Salisbury's dual 
control. Though the motive and object had been 
to secure a better government for Egypt, a great 
error had been committed. The British Govern- 
ment had fulfilled all the obligations imposed 
upon them, and they were acting for the benefit 
of the civilized world. Reforms had been effected 
in the judicature, legislature, police, and military 
organizations of Egypt ; and they were resolved 
to see all the vital points recommended carried 
out by the Khedive's Government. As to the 
war in the Soudan, it was hateful to the people of 
Egypt ; and England declined to have anything 
to do with the reconquest of the Soudan. * * * 
General Gordon, whom Mr. Gladstone character- 
ized as a hero and a genius, had been despatched 
to Khartoum for the purpose of withdrawing, if 



Third Administration and Home Rule 483 

possible, in safety the 29,000 soldiers of the Khe- 
dive scattered over the Soudan. The General's 
mission was not the reconquest of the Soudan, 
but its peaceful evacuation, and the reconstruc- 
tion of the country, by giving back to the Sultan 
the ancestral power which had been suspended 
during the Egyptian occupation. The Govern- 
ment had to consider in any steps which they 
took the danger of thwarting Gordon's peaceful 
mission and endangering his life." Mr. Gladstone 
said that the policy of the Government was to 
" rescue and retire." Sir S. Northcote's resolu- 
tion was rejected by 311 to 292 votes, showing the 
growing strength of the Opposition. 

The pacific mission of General Gordon to 
Khartoum having failed, there was great solici- 
tude felt for that gallant soldier's welfare and 
safety. Sir M. Hicks-Beach offered another vote 
of censure, complaining of the dilatory conduct of 
the Government for not taking steps to secure the 
safety of General Gordon. Mr. Gladstone, in re- 
ply, admitted the obligations of the Government 
to General Gordon, and stated that on reasonable 
proof of danger he would be assisted. "The 
nation would never grudge adequate efforts for 
the protection of its agents, but it was the duty 
of the Government to consider the treasure, the 
blood, and the honor of the country, together with 
the circumstances of the time, the season, the 
climate, and the military difficulties. Conscious 



484 William E. Gladstone 

of what tHeir obligations were, they would con- 
tinue to use their best endeavours to fulfil them, 
unmoved by the threats and the captions criti- 
cisms of the Opposition." The proposed censure 
was defeated. 

A conference of European powers was held 
on Egyptian affairs, but was abortive ; and Mr. 
Gladstone while announcing that he wished to 
get out of Egypt as soon as circumstances would 
allow, admitted that institutions, however good, 
were not likely to survive the withdrawal of our 
troops. Lord Northbrook was next despatched 
by the government on a mission to Egypt, with 
the object of rescuing her from her financial 
embarrassments, and averting the impending 
dangers of a national bankruptcy. 

In February, 1884, ^^- Gladstone intro- 
duced the Government Franchise Bill in the 
House of Commons. It was a great measure 
and proposed to complete the work of parliamen- 
tary reform by conferring the suffrage upon every 
person in the United Kingdom who was the head 
of a household. Mr. Gladstone said that the 
results of the bill would be to add to the English 
constituency upwards of 1,300,000 voters ; to the 
Scotch constituency over 200,000 voters ; and to 
the Irish constituency over 400,000 voters ; 
which would add to the aggregate constituency 
of the United Kingdom, which was then 
3,000,000 voters, 2,000,000 more, or nearly 



Third Administration and Home Rule 485 

twice as many as were added in 1832. The 
Premier appealed for nnion on this great reform, 
and observed : " Let ns hold firmly together, and 
success will crown our efforts. You will, as 
much as any former Parliament that has con- 
ferred great legislative benefits on the nation^ 
have your reward, and read your history in a 
nation's eyes ; for you will have deserved all the 
benefits you will have conferred. You will have 
made a strong nation stronger still — stronger in 
union without, and stronger against its foes (if 
and when it has any foes) within ; stronger in 
union between class and class, and in rallying 
all classes and portions of the community in 
one solid compact mass round the ancient 
Throne which it has loved so well, and round 
the Constitution, now to be more than ever free 
and more than ever powerful." 

The measure was warmly debated. Besides 
this opposition there were, outside of the House, 
ominous utterances threatening the rejection of 
the scheme. Mr. Gladstone, referring to these 
hostile murmurings, said that hitherto the atti- 
tude of the government had been, in Shakes- 
peare's words, " Beware of entrance to a 
quarrel ; but, being in, bear it, that the opposer 
may beware of thee," He deprecated a quarrel 
and declared that the government had done 
everything to prevent a collision between the 
two Houses of Parliament on this question, 



486 William E. Gladstone 

wHcli would open up a prospect more serious 
than any he remembered since the first Reform 
Bill. 

The House of Lords passed a resolution to 
the effect that the Lords would not concur in 
any measure of reform without having the com- 
plete bill before them, including the redistribu- 
tion and registration, as well as an extension of 
the suffrage. The Premier promised to intro- 
duce a Redistribution Bill in the following ses- 
sion, but Lord Salisbury, since the death of 
Lord Beaconsfield, the leader of the Conserva- 
tive party, declined to discuss the Redistribution 
Bill, ^^ with a rope around his neck," by which he 
meant a franchise act under which his party 
must appeal to the countr}^ Negotiations fol- 
lowed between the Liberal and Conservative 
leaders with fruitless results, and the House of 
Lords finally passed a resolution that it would 
be desirable for Parliament to have an autumn 
session, to consider the Representation of the 
People Bill, in connection with the Redistribu- 
tion Bill, which the government had brought 
before Parliament. 

Public meetings were held at various places 
throughout the country, and the question of the 
enlargement of the franchise discussed. The 
policy of the Tories was strongly condemned at 
many large and influential public gatherings. 
In August Mr. Gladstone visited Midlothian 



Third Administration and Home Rule 489 

and delivered a powerful address in the Edin- 
btirgH Corn Exchange. He explained that the 
special purpose for which he appeared before his 
constituents was to promote, by every legitimate 
means in his power, the speedy passage of the 
Franchise Bill. "The unfortunate rejection of 
the measure," he observed, " had already drawn 
in its train other questions of the gravest kind, 
and the vast proportion of the people would 
soon be asking whether an organic change was 
not required in the House of Lords. He, how- 
ever, did not believe that the House of Lords had 
as yet placed itself in a position of irretrievable 
error. He believed that it was possible for it to 
go back, .and to go back with dignity and honor. 
With regard to the foreign policy of the 
Government, which had been attacked and 
compared unfavorably with the Midlothian pro- 
gramme of 1879, Mr. Gladstone defended it with 
spirit. He expressed his satisfaction with the 
expansion of Germany abroad, and reviewed the 
policy of the Government in Eastern Europe, 
Afghanistan, India and South Africa. As to the 
Transvaal, he contended that ''they were strong 
and could afford to be merciful," and that it 
was not possible without the grossest and most 
shameful breach of faith to persist in holding 
the Boers to annexation, " when we had pledged 
ourselves beforehand that they should not be 
anne^jed e^^cept with their own good will." In 



490 William E. Gladstone 

reply to the oft-repeated question, '^ What took 
you to Egypt?" the Premier said: "Honor and 
plighted faith." The covenants they were keep- 
ing were those entered into by their Tory pre- 
decessors, and most unfortunate and most unwise 
he considered them to be. The Government had 
respected the sovereignty of the Porte and the 
title of the European Powers to be concerned in 
all matters territorially affecting the Turkish 
Empire ; they had discouraged the spirit of ag- 
gression as well as they could, and had con- 
tracted no embarrassing engagements. Great 
improvements had been introduced in the ad- 
ministration of Egypt, but he regretted the total 
failure of the late Conference of the Powers to 
solve the problem of Egyptian finance. With 
regard to General Gordon the Government were 
considering the best means to be adopted for 
fulfilling their obligations. 

Parliament met in October, 1884. The 
Franchise Bill was introduced and sent to the 
House of Lords, and the Redistribution Bill, 
upon which a compromise with the Conservatives 
had been reached, was presented in the House of 
Commons. The measure, as altered, proposed 
to disfranchise all boroughs with a population 
under 15,000, to give only one member to towns 
with a population between 15,000 and 50,000, 
and to take one member each from the counties 



Third Administration and Home Rule 



491 



of Rutland and Hereford. By this arrange- 
ment one hundred and sixty seats would be 
"extinguished,'^ which, with the six seats extin- 
guished before, would be revived and distributed 
as follows : '^ Eight new boroughs would be 
created, the representation of London, Liver- 
pool, and other large cities and towns would 
be greatly increased, while in dealing with the 
remainder of the seats unappropriated, the 
Government would apply equal electoral areas 
throughout the country." The Franchise Bill— 
a truly democratic bill— was carried through both 
Houses, and became a law. The Redistribution 
Bill was carried, January, 1885, after animated 
debate. Registration measures were also passed 
for England, Scotland and Ireland, which received 
the royal assent May 21st. 

January, 1885, Mr. Gladstone wrote a kindly, 
serious, yet courtly letter of congratulation to 
Prince Albert Victor, eldest son of the Prince 
of Wales and heir presumptive to the Crown, on 
the attainment of his majority. 

In the hour of triumph the government was 
doomed to receive a stunning blow. The news 
of the fall of Khartoum and the untimely death 
of General Gordon sent a thrill of horror and 
indignation throughout England. The govern- 
ment was seriously condemned for its pro- 
crastination in not sending timely relief, for the 
rescue of the imperiled English, But when the 



492 William E. Gladstone 

facts became fully known it was found that no 
blame could be attaclied to Mr. Gladstone, who 
was himself strongly moved by the death of 
General Gordon, whose work and character he 
highly esteemed. The Prime Minister was, 
however, equal to the emergency, and announced 
that it was necessary to overthrow the Mahdi at 
Khartoum, to renew operations against Osman 
Digna, and to construct a railway from Suakin 
to Berber with a view to a campaign in the 
fall. The reserves were called out by royal 
proclamation. 

However, these measures met with opposi- 
tion. Sir Stafford Northcote brought forward a 
motion affirming that the risks and sacrifices 
which the government appeared to be ready to 
encounter could only be justified by a distinct 
recognition of England's responsibility for Egypt, 
and those portions of the Soudan which were 
necessary to its security. An amendment was 
proposed by Mr. John Morley, but regretting its 
decision to continue the conflict with the Mahdi. 
Mr. Gladstone replied forcibly to both motion 
and amendment, and appealed to the Liberal 
party to sustain the administration and its policy 
by an unmistakable vote of confidence. The 
government was sustained. 

The Great Powers of Europe, in convention 
for the settlement of the finances of Egypt, 
had concluded that it would require a loan of 



Third Administration and Home Rule 493 

;^9,ooo,ooo to save Egypt from bankruptcy. 
This loan was to be issued on an international 
guarantee, with an international inquiry at tbe 
end of two years into tbe success of tbe scbeme. 
This plan of adjustment was agreed to by the 
House. A short time after this settlement 
Mr. Gladstone announced a vote of credit to 
provide against any danger from Russian action, 
stated that no farther operations would be under- 
taken either on the Nile or near Suakin, and 
that General Graham's campaign would be 
abandoned, as well as the construction of the 
new railway. 

Great excitement was created in England 
by the announcement of the advance of the 
Russians on the Indian frontier. March 13th 
Mr. Gladstone stated in the House that as the 
protests formerly made against the advance of 
Russia had been allowed to lapse, it had been 
agreed that pending the delineation of the 
frontier there should be no further advance on 
either side. In April, however, a conflict occurred 
between the Russians and the Afghans, which 
seemed to indicate that General Komaroff had 
committed an act of unprovoked aggression on 
the Ameer. Mr. Gladstone moved a vote of credit 
on the 27th in a speech, whose eloquence and 
energy greatly stirred both sides of the House. 
Happily, the difficulty with Russia was adjusted 



494 William E. Gladstone 

by conceding Pendjeli to Russia in consideration 
of the surrender of Zulfiker to the Ameer. 

The administration of Mr. Gladstone, which 
had weathered through many storms, was des- 
tined to fall in a wholly unexpected way. When 
the budget for 1885 was produced there was a 
deficit of upwards of a million pounds, besides 
the depressed revenue and an estimated expen- 
diture for the current year of not less than 
;^ 100,000,000. Mr. Childers, the Chancellor of 
the Bxchequer, proposed to make the taxation 
upon land proportionate to that on personal prop- 
erty, and to augment the duties on spirits and 
beer. But various interests were antagonized, 
and opposition was aroused. The country mem- 
bers demanded that no new taxes be put on the 
land until the promised relief of local taxation 
had been granted. The agricultural and liquor 
interests were discontented, as well as the Scotch 
and Irish members, with the whisky duty. Con- 
cessions were made, but they failed to reconcile 
the opposition. A hostile motion was offered by 
Sir M. Hicks-Beach, and Mr. Gladstone declared 
that the Cabinet would resign if defeated. Many 
Liberals were absent when the vote was taken, 
regarding a majority for the Ministry as certain, 
but the amendment was carried June 9th by a 
vote of 264 to 252, and the Premier and his col- 
leagues resigned. The Liberals were desirous 
of passing a vote of confidence in the adminis- 



Third Administration and Home Rule 495 

tration, but Mr. Gladstone deprecated this, as he 
felt tlie situation to be intolerable, and was de- 
sirous of being relieved from the responsibility of 
office. Misfortunes, both in reference to affairs 
at home and abroad, had fallen heavily upon the 
Government, for many of which they were not 
responsible, and the Cabinet had been held 
together chiefly by the masterly personality of 
the Premier. Hence it was not without a feel- 
ing of personal satisfaction that Mr. Gladstone 
transferred the seats of office to his successor, 
Lord Salisbury. On his retirement from office 
the Queen offered an Earldom to Mr. Gladstone, 
which he declined. Its acceptance would have 
meant. burial in the House of Lords, and an end 
to his progressive action. 

The events that led to the third administra- 
tion of Mr. Gladstone will next engage our atten- 
tion. 

The first general election under the New 
Reform Act was held in November, 1885. Mr. 
Gladstone again appealed to his constituents, and, 
although nearly seventy-six years of age, spoke 
with an energy and force far beyond all his con- 
temporaries. His attitude on the question of 
Dis-establishment drew back many wavering 
Scotch votes. He discussed the Scotch question 
at Edinburgh, and said there was no fear of 
change so long as England dealt liberally, equit- 
ably, and prudently with Ireland, but demands 



496 William E. Gladstone 

must be subject to the condition tbat the unity of 
the empire, and all the powers of the Imperial 
Parliament for maintaining that authority, must 
be preserved. 

In another address he stated his conviction 
that the day had not come when the Dis-establish- 
ment of the Church in Scotland should be made 
a test question. The question pressing for settle- 
ment by the next Parliament was land reform, 
local government, parliamentary procedure, and 
the imperial relations between Ireland and Eng- 
land ; and every sensible man would admit that 
it was right to direct attention to them rather 
than to a matter impossible of immediate solu- 
tion. 

At West Calder Mr, Gladstone made an ad- 
dress, in which he '' approved Lord Salisbury's 
action with regard to Servia, complained of the 
ministerial condemnation of Lord Ripon's Indian 
administration, ridiculed the idea of benefit result- 
ing from a Royal Commission on trade depres- 
sion, warned the electors against remedies which 
were really worse than the disease, and defended 
Free-Trade principles. He furthur advocated 
comprehensive land reforms, including free trans- 
fer, facility of registration, and the uprooting of 
mortmain " 

Mr. Gladstone was returned again for Mid- 
lothian by an overwhelming majority. The elec- 
tions resulted in the return of 333 Liberals, 249 



Q 

> 

H 

O 
!^ 



02 




Third Administration and Home Rule 499 

Conservatives, 86 Parnellites, and 2 Indepen- 
dents. The Liberals thus secured a substantial 
triumpli. The agricultural districts were faithful 
to the Liberals, but they lost in the boroughs. 
The clergy and the publicans, and the Parnellites 
were found " arrayed " in " scandalous alliance " 
against the Liberal cause. The Liberal party 
was just short of the numbers required to defeat 
the combined forces of Tories and Parnellites. 
Lord Salisbury was retained in office, but the 
Conservatives were disunited, and the life of his 
administration hung by a thread. The Liberals 
were strong, hopeful, and united. In Mr. Cham- 
berlain they had a popular champion of great 
ability and industry. 

December 17, 1885 England was astonished 
by the appearance of an anonymous paragraph 
in the Times^ affirming that, if Mr. Gladstone 
returned to power, he would deal with a liberal 
hand with the demands of Home Rule. The 
author of the paragraph has never been clearly 
ascertained, but the atmosphere of mystery with 
which it was surrounded was not regarded as 
becoming, either to such an important policy or 
to the personal dignity of the illustrious states- 
man. A storm of questions, contradictions, 
explanations, enthusiasms, and jeremiads fol- 
lowed its appearance. Mr. Gladstone would 
neither affirm nor deny, but held his peace. 
The question, he said, was one for a responsible 



500 William E. Gladstone 

Ministry alone to handle. There was great 
uncertainty. It was, however, plain that if 
Mr. Gladstone should favor Home Rule, the 
Parnellites would support him, and the Tories 
must leave office. But only twelve months before 
Lord Shaftesbury wrote : *' In a year or so we 
shall have Home Rule disposed of (at all 
hazards), to save us from daily and hourly 
bores.'' 

The Parliament of 1886 had scarcely opened 
before the Salisbury government was defeated 
upon an amendment to the Queen's address, 
affirming the necessity for affording facilities to 
agricultural laborers to obtain allotments and 
small holdings. Some of the leading Liberals 
opposed the amendment, but Mr. . Gladstone 
earnestly favored it, as a recognition of the evils 
arising from the divorce of so large a proportion 
of the population from the land. The Irish 
and the Liberals coalesced, and the Government 
was placed in a minority of seventj^-nine, and 
Lord Salisbury immediately resigned. 

Late at night, January 29, 1886, . jir Henry 
Ponsonby arrived at Mr. Gladstone's residence 
with a summons from the Queen for him to 
repair to her at Osborne. On the ist of Feb- 
ruary Mr. Gladstone '^ kissed hands," and 
became for the third time Prime Minister of 
England. The new Premier was forced to face 
unusual difficulties, but he finally came to 



• Third Administration and Home Rule 501 

the conclusion that it was impossible to deal 
with the Irish question upon the old stereotyped 
lines. He was resolved to treat this subject 
upon large and generous principles. Accord- 
ingly, on the 8th of April, Mr. Gladstone, in the 
presence of a crowded House, brought forward 
his Home Rule Bill — his bill for the government 
of Ireland. With certain imperial reservations 
and safeguards the bill gave to Ireland what she 
had long demanded — the right to make her own 
laws. The interest in the expected legislation 
was so great that members began to arrive at 
half-past five in the morning, while sixty of 
them were so eager to secure seats that they 
breakfasted at Westminster. 

Mr. Gladstone's new measure was not only 
opposed by the Conservatives, but it alienated 
from the Premier some of the most influential of 
the Liberal party. Among the Liberals who 
opposed the measure were those who had been 
the colleagues of Mr. Gladstone only the June 
before in the Cabinet — Lord Hartington, Lord 
Shilborne, Lord Northbrook, Lord Derby and 
Lord Carlingford. Mr. Gladstone's forces, how- 
ever, were reinforced by Mr. Morley, Lord 
Herschell and others. May loth, Mr. Gladstone 
denied that he had ever declared Home Rule for 
Ireland incompatible with Imperial unity. It 
was a remedy for social disorder. The policy of 



502 William E. Gladstone 

the opposition was coercion, wliile tliat of tlie 
government was antonomy. 

On the 1 8th of April the Premier presented 
the Irish Land Purchase Bill, for the buying 
out of the Irish landlords, which was intended 
to come into operation on the same day as the 
Home Rule Bill. The object of this measure 
was to give to all Irish landowners the option of 
being bought out on the terms of the Act, and 
opening towards the exercise of that option 
where their rent was from agricultural land. 
The State authority was to be the purchaser, 
and the occupier was to be the proprietor. 
The nominal purchase price was fixed at twenty 
years' purchase of the net rental, ascertained by 
deducting law charges, bad debts, and cost of 
management from judicial rent. Where there 
was no judicial rental the Land Court could, if it 
chose, make use of Griffiths' valuation for com- 
ing to a fair decision. To meet the demand 
for the means of purchase thus established, 
Mr. Gladstone proposed to create ;^50,ooo,ooo 
three per cents. The repayment of advances 
would be secured by a Receiver General, 
appointed by and acting upon British authority. 

The Land Purchase Bill was also opposed. 
It was the final cause which led to the retirement 
from the government of Mr. Chamberlain, '^ the 
able and enterprising exponent of the new Radi- 
calism." He was soon followed by Sir George 



m 
Third Administration and Home Rule 503 

Trevelyan, " who combined the most dignified 
traditions, social and literary, of the Whig party 
with a fervent and stable Liberalism which the 
vicissitudes of twenty years had constantly 
tried and never found wanting." Mr. Bright 
also arrayed himself in opposition to the govern- 
ment, and accused Mr. Gladstone of successfully 
concealing his thoughts upon the Irish question 
in November. Mr. Gladstone replied that the 
position of Ireland had changed since 1881. 

The debate extended over many nights, and 
the opposition to the Irish bills of so many Lib- 
eral leaders in every constituency, soon led to 
disaffection among the people. What was lost in 
some districts, however, was to some extent made 
up, says an English writer, by "the support of 
that very broken reed, the Irish vote, which was 
destined to pierce the hand of so many a confi- 
ding candidate who leaned upon it." While this 
debate was in progress a bill directed against the 
carrying of arms in Ireland was introduced and 
pushed forward rapidly through both Houses, and 
became a law. 

Mr. Gladstone explained the position of the 
Cabinet on the Home Rule and I^and Bills at a 
meeting of Liberals held at the Foreign Ofiice, 
May 27th. He stated that the Government at 
present only asked for an endorsement of the 
leading principles of the two measures; and 
in closing the debate afterwards on the second 



504 William E. Gladstone 

reading of the Home Rule Bill, in the House of 
Commons, lie made an eloquent appeal for Ire- 
land. But all parties were preparing for the con- 
flict, and members of opposite parties were 
consolidating themselves for opposition. " The 
Whigs, under Lord Hartington, coalesced with 
the Radicals, under Mr. Chamberlain, and both 
together made a working alliance with the Tories. 
This alliance was admirably organized in London 
and in the constituencies." 

It seems that the Premier was deceived by 
his official counsellors of the Liberal party as to 
the real condition of affairs respecting Home 
Rule and the prospects for the passage of his 
bills. He did not dream of defeat, but if by 
some mischance they would suffer defeat, then 
he could appeal to the country with the certainty 
of being sustained by the popular vote. This 
was what Mr. Gladstone hoped, and what he 
thought he had the assurance of. But hopes of 
success began to give way to fears of defeat as 
the time drew near to take the vote. However, 
some still hopeful prophesied a small majority 
against the bill — only ten votes at the most. The 
Cabinet desperately resolved not to resign if 
beaten by so small a majority, but would have 
some adherent move a vote of confidence. This 
they argued would be favored by some opposed 
to Home Rule, and the question be deferred to 
another session, leaving the Liberals still in 



Third Administration and Home Rule 505 

ofEce. But tHese hopes were doomed to be 
blasted. Early in the morning of June 8tli the 
momentous division took place, and it was found 
that the Government, instead of getting a ma- 
jority, was defeated by thirty votes. It was found 
that ninety-three Liberals had voted with the 
majority. 

The Premier at once advised the Queen to 
dissolve Parliament, and though Her Majesty at 
first demurred at the trouble of another election 
within seven months of the last, and begged Mr. 
Gladstone to reconsider his counsel, yet he argued 
that a general election would cause less trouble 
than a year of embittered and fanatical agitation 
against Home Rule. Besides, as he said to a col- 
league, ^^ If we did not dissolve we would be 
showing the white feather." Mr. Gladstone 
finally had his way, the Queen yielded and Par- 
liament was dissolved June 26, 1886. June 14th 
Mr. Gladstone issued an address to the electors 
of Midlothian, and later paid a visit to Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, where he made powerful 
addresses. He then spoke at Manchester, and, 
passing on to Liverpool, he advocated the cause 
of Ireland, calling upon the people to "ring out 
the old, ring in the new," and to make Ireland 
not an enemy but a friend. 

The result of this appeal to the country was 
the return of a decided majority of over a hun- 
dred against Home Rule, and thus, after a short 



to6 William E. Gladstone 



J 



term of five montHs in ofiice, tlie tliird adminis- 
tration of Mr. Gladstone was bronght to a close, 
and lie became again tHe leader of tbe Opposi- 
tion. The dissolution and appeal to tbe country 
was a practical blunder, but Mr. Gladstone's ad- 
dress to tbe people was skilfully worded. He 
freely admitted tbat tbe Irish bills were dead, 
and asked the constituencies simply to sanction 
a principle, and that, too, a very plain and reason- 
able one in itself. He invited the people to vote 
aye or no to this question: ^^ Whether you will 
or will not have regard to the prayer of Ireland 
for the management by herself of the affairs 
specifically and exclusively her own?" The 
separation of the bare principle of self-govern- 
ment from the practical dif&culties presented by 
the bills enabled many Liberals who were op- 
posed to the measures to support Mr. Gladstone, 
but the majority of voters failed to make this 
distinction, and hence came defeat. The decision 
of the people was not regarded as final. 

In 1887 the Jubilee of the Queen was cele- 
brated. Fifty years before Queen Victoria had 
ascended the throne of England. Mr. and Mrs. 
Gladstone celebrated the Queen's Jubilee by giv- 
ing a treat to all the inhabitants of the estates of 
Hawarden, who were of the Queen's age, which 
was sixty-eight and upwards. The treat took the 
shape of a dinner and tea, served in a large tent 
erected in front of the castle, and the guests 



Third Administration and Home Rule 507 

numbered upwards of two hundred and fifty. 
The principal toast, proposed by Mr. Gladstone, 
was the Queen. He contrasted the jubilee then 
being celebrated all over the English-speaking 
world, with that of George the Third, which was 
"a jubilee of the great folks, a jubilee of corpor- 
ations and of authorities, a jubilee of the upper 
classes." On the other hand, he continued, the 
Victorian Jubilee was one when " the population 
are better fed, better clothed, and better housed — 
and by a great deal — than they were fifty years 
ago, and the great mass of these happy and 
blessed changes is associated with the name and 
action of the Queen." 

In the year of the Queen's Jubilee, 1887, 
Mr. Gladstone addressed many gatherings, and 
at Swansea, where he was the guest of Sir 
Hussey Vivian, he spoke to a vast concourse of 
people, estimated at one hundred thousand. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Prime Minister the Fourth Time 

^^ 4 HEN Parliament met in 1887 Mr. 
gjLf Gladstone entered npon " a course 
/^\ of extraordinary physical and intel- 
lectual efforts, witli voice and pen, 
in Parliament and on tlie platform, 
on belialf of tlie cause, defeated but not aban- 
doned, of self-government for Ireland." Tbe 
Tory administration passed a Crimes Prevention 
Bill for Ireland of great severity. Irisb mem- 
bers of Parliament were tbrown into prison, but 
tbe Act failed of its object — tbe suppression of 
tbe Land League. 

In December, 1887, Mr. Gladstone visited 
Italy and made Naples bis headquarters. He 
was received with joy for tbe service be bad 
rendered to tbe Italian people. Tbe University 
of Bologna, in celebrating tbe eigbtb century of 
its existence, conferred upon bim tbe degree of 
Doctor of Arts. 

In 1888 tbe House of Commons appointed 
a Commission to try tbe " Times " cbarges 
508 



Prime Minister the Fourth Time 509 

against Mr. Parnell. THe charges were found 
to be false. 

Mr. Gladstone visited Birmingliam in 
November, 1888. After paying a glowing 
tribute to Jobn Brigbt, and expressing an 
earnest desire for bis recovery to bealtb, be 
condemned tbe Coercion Act. Mr. Gladstone 
received many handsome presents from tbe 
workingmen, and Mrs. Gladstone received from 
tbe ladies a medallion cameo portrait of ber 
busband. A great demonstration was made, at ' 
Bingley Hall, in wbicb were gathered over 
20,000 persons. 

A number of Liberals, who bad deserted 
Mr. Gladstone, returned upon the promise of 
certain imperial guarantees which were granted, 
among them Sir George Trevelyan. Mr. 
Chamberlain, who had asked for these safe- 
guards, did not accept them. 

July 25, 1889, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone cele- 
brated their '' Golden Wedding." Among the 
many to offer congratulations were the Queen by 
telegram, and the Prince of Wales by letter. A 
pleasant surprise met them at home. A por- 
trait of Mr. Gladstone, by Sir John Millais, was 
found hanging in the breakfast-room, ^' A gift 
from English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish 
Women.'* 

In 1890 trouble came to the Liberal party 
through the scandal connecting the names of 



5ro William E. Gladstone 

Mr. Parnell and Mrs O'Shea. Mr. Gladstone 
announced tliat tHe IrisH party must clioose 
between himself and Mr. Parnell. In Novem- 
ber, 1890, Mr. Parnell was deposed from tbe 
cbairmansliip of tbe United Irisb National 
Party. This led to a division. Mr. Justin 
McCartby was elected leader by tbe Anti- 
Parnellites, and tbe Parnellites selected Mr. 
Jobn Redmond. 

Parliament would soon terminate by limita- 
tion, so Mr. Gladstone devoted bimself to pre- 
paring tbe people for tbe coming general elec- 
tion. Besides, in February, 1891, be made an 
address, at tbe opening of St. Martinis Free 
Public Library, and in Marcb to tbe boys at 
Eton College on Homeric Studies. June 28, 
1892, Parliament came to an end. Mr. Glad- 
stone's journey to Edinburgb, in July, was all 
along tbe route " a triumpbal progress." He 
was re-elected. Tbe question of tbe day was 
Home Rule, and wberever tbe people bad tbe 
opportunity of declaring tbemselves, tbey pro- 
nounced condemnation upon tbe policy of Lord 
Salisbury's administration, and in favor of 
Home Rule for Ireland. 

Tbe new Parliament met, and, August 12, 
1892, a motion was made of '' No Confidence " 
in tbe Salisbury government. Tbe division was 
tbe largest ever taken in tbe House of Com- 
mons, tbe vote being 350 for tbe motion and 310 



Prime Minister the Fourth Time 511 

against it — a majority of 40 for Mr. Gladstone. 
The scene in tHe House wHicli attended the 
overthrow of the Salisbury government was less 
dramatic than that which accompanied the defeat 
of the Gladstone ministry in 1885, ^^^ it was 
full of exciting episodes. The House was 
packed to the doors. The excitement was in- 
tense, and the confusion great. When the fig- 
ures were announced, another wild scene of dis- 
order prevailed and there was prolonged cheer- 
ing. ^'Ten minutes later the great forum was 
empty and the excited assembly had found its 
way to the quiet outside under the stars." 

Monday, August 15, 1892, Mr. Gladstone 
repaired to Osborne on the Royal Yacht, and 
became for the fourth time Prime Minister. 
Since 1868 he had been the undisputed leader of 
his party. His main supporters in all his 
reform measures were the Nonconformists, 
whose claim for " the absolute religious equality 
of all denominations before the law of the land," 
must, in time, it was thought, bring about the 
disestablishment of the Episcopal Church. 

In September, 1892, Mr. Gladstone went to 
Sir E. Watkin's Chalet on Mount Snowdon, 
Wales, where he made his Boulder Stone speech. 
To commemorate his visit a slab of gray Aber- 
deen granite was "let into the actual brown 
rock," on which is the following inscription in 
Welsh and in English: "September 13, 1892. 



512 William E. Gladstone 

Upon this rock the Right Honorable W. E. 
Gladstone, M. P., when Prime Minister for the 
fourth time, and eighty-three years old, 
addressed the people of Eryi upon justice to 
Wales. The multitude sang Cymric hymns 
and ' The Land of My Fathers.' " 

December 29, 1892, Mr. Gladstone celebrated 
his eighty-third birthday. Mr. and Mrs. Glad- 
stone were at Biarritz. Congratulatory tele- 
grams and messages were received in great 
numbers, besides many handsome presents. The 
event was celebrated all over England. The 
Midlothian Liberals sent congratulations upon 
the return of the Liberal Party to power under 
his leadership, and the completion of his sixty 
years' service in the House. Resolutions were 
passed deploring the wickedness of the dynamite 
outrage at Dublin, December 24, and yet avow- 
ing the justice of granting to Ireland the right 
to manage her own affairs. 

January 31, 1893, Parliament was opened. 
In the House of Commons there was a brilliant 
gathering, and nearly all the members were 
present, many of them standing. Just before 
noon the Hon. Arthur Wellesley Peel, Speaker, 
took his seat, and Archdeacon Farrar, Chaplain, 
offered prayer. When Mr. Gladstone entered 
from behind the Speaker's chair, every Liberal 
and Irish Nationalist stood up and greeted him 
with prolonged and enthusiastic cheers; audi 




Gladstone on the Queen's Yacht, en Route to Osborne 



Prime Minister the Fourth Time 5^5 

when he took the oath as Prime Minister, he 
received another ovation. The members were 
then summoned to the House of Lords to hear 
the Queen's speech, which was read by the Lord 
High Chancellor, Baron Herschall. The Prince 
of Wales and his son, the Duke of York, occupied 
seats on the ^^ cross bench." 

February 13, the excitement in and about 
the Parliament Houses was as great as that 
which prevailed two weeks before. Enthusiastic 
crowds greeted Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone. When 
the doors of the House of Commons were opened, 
there was a " disorderly rush " of the members 
into the House to obtain seats, ''the members 
shouting and struggling, several being thrown to 
the floor in the excitement." Peers, Commons, 
and visitors filled the floor and galleries. The 
Prince of Wales and other members of the royal 
family were present. When Mr. Gladstone arose 
he was greeted with applause. He reminded the 
House that for seven years the voices which used 
to plead the cause of Irish government in Irish 
affairs had been mute within the walls of the 
House. He then asked permission to introduce 
a " Bill to Amend the Provision for the Govern- 
ment of Ireland," which was the title of the Home 
Rule Bill. Mr. Balfour led the opposition to 
the bill. Mr. Chamberlain declared that the bill 
would not accomplish its purpose, whereupon Mr, 
Justin McCarthy, for the anti-Par nellities, replied 



5i6 William E. Gladstone 

tliat the Irisli would accept it as a message of 
everlasting peace, and Mr. John Redmond, for 
the Parnellites, answered that if disturbances 
followed in Ireland it would be due to the Con- 
servatives. 

The Ulster Unionists opposed the bill. The 
Scotch-Irish Protestants of the north of Ireland 
declared that they preferred to stand where they 
did in 1690, when they defeated James II and his 
Catholic followers, in the battle of the Boyne, and 
fought for William of Orange for the English 
throne and liberty and Protestantism. Their 
opposition to Home Rule for Ireland grew out of 
their hostility to Roman Catholicism and the fear 
of its supremacy. 

After six months of earnest debate in the 
House of Commons, the Home Rule Bill for 
Ireland was passed, with slight amendments, 
September i, 1893, by a vote of 301 to 267, a 
majority of thirty-four, The struggle was per- 
haps the most heated in the history of Parliament. 

The bill was sent to the House of Lords, 
where it was defeated, midnight, September 8, by 
the surprising majority of 419 to 41, after 
only one week's discussion. Members that never 
attended were drummed up to vote against the 
bill. The usual working force of the House of 
Lords is from thirty to forty members. The vote 
was the largest ever taken in the Lords. 



PRIME Minister the Fourth Time 517 

At once the cry, " Down with the House of 
Lords ! " was heard. The National Liberal 
Federation issued a circular, in which were the 
words : " The question of mending or ending the 
House of Lords * * displaces for awhile all 
other subjects of reform." Mr. Gladstone was 
probably aware of the contents of this manifesto 
before it was issued, and the sentiments were in 
accord with those uttered by him two years before 
at New Castle. 

September 27th, Mr. Gladstone addressed 
his constituents at Edinburgh. He was received 
with an outburst of enthusiasm. He said that 
the People's Chamber had passed the bill. If 
the nation was determined it would not be bafEed 
by the Peers. If the Commons should go before 
the country, then the Lords should go too, and if 
defeated, should do what the Commons would do 
— clear out. 

The Queen wanted Mr. Gladstone to appeal 
to the country, and there was an opinion among 
some that Mr. Gladstone would be defeated at 
the polls upon the question; but the Premier 
intimated to the Queen his intention not to 
appeal, and announced the readiness of the 
Cabinet to be dismissed by the Queen. How- 
ever, the Queen would hardly expose the throne 
to the danger threatening the Peers. 

December 29, 1893, Mr, Gladstone attained 
the eighty-fourth year of his age, When he 



5i3 William E. Gladstone 

entered the House of Commons that day his 
political associates of the lyiberal party all rose 
ani. greeted him with cheers. When the 
applause had subsided, the Conservatives raised 
their hats and their leader, Mr. Balfour, rose and 
tendered his congratulations. Mr. Gladstone 
was much pleased with the demonstrations of his 
friends, as well as with the graceful compliments 
of his political opponents. Besides about two 
hundred congratulatory messages, letters and 
telegrams were received, those from Queen 
Victoria, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, 
being among the first. 

July 6, 1893, Prince George of Wales, Duke 
of York, and Princess Mary of Teck were 
married. The Prince was by inheritance heir, 
after the Prince of Wales, to the throne of Eng- 
land. Mr. Gladstone attended the wedding, 
arrayed in the blue and gold uniform of a brother 
of the Trinity House, with naval epaulettes, and 
was conducted to the royal pew reserved for him. 

Among the great measures proposed at this 
time by Mr. Gladstone were the Employers' 
Liability, and the Parish Councils Bills. The 
latter was as evolutionary and as revolutionary 
as the Home Rule Bill. Its object was to take 
the control of 10,000 rural English parishes out 
of the hands of the squire and the parson and 
put it into the hands of the people. With its 
amendments regarding woman suffrage, to 



Prime Minister the Fourth Time 521 

wHcli Mr. Gladstone was opposed, it gave to 
every man and woman in England one vote — 
and only one — in local affairs. February 21, 
1894, wlien Mr. Gladstone had returned from 
Biarritz, wliere lie had gone for his health, there 
was again a notable assemblage in the House of 
Commons to hear him speak. It was expected 
that he would make a bitter attack upon the 
House of Lords, which had attempted to defeat 
both these bills by amendments. But he calmly 
spoke of the lamentable divergence between the 
two branches of the legislature upon the Em- 
ployers' Liability Bill, and asked that the amend- 
ment be rejected, which was done by a majority 
of 225 to 6. The bill was therefore withdrawn, 
and the responsibility of its defeat thrown upon 
the Lords. The House also rejected all the 
important amendments of the Parish Councils 
Bill, but concurred in the unimportant changes 
made by the Lords. It was sent back then to 
the lords, and finally passed by them. But 
Mr. Gladstone greatly disappointed many of his 
political friends by his mild manner of dealing 
with the House of Lords. The extreme Radi- 
cals were angered and condemned severely the 
Premier for what they called his ''backing down " 
and his " feeble speech." 

Rumors in reference to Mr. Gladstone's 
resignation, which had been started by the Pall 
Mall Gazette^ while lie was yet at Biarritz, were 



523 William E. Gladstone 

now renewed. February 28, 1894, Mr. Glad- 
stone informed the Queen of his contemplated 
retirement, giving as reasons his failing eye- 
sight, deafness and age. March ist, he made an 
important speech in the House of Commons. 
He displayed so much vigor and earnestness in 
his speech that it was thought that he had given 
up the idea of retiring. But this was his last 
speech as Premier. March 2d, Mr. and Mrs. 
Gladstone were summoned to Windsor, where 
thfey dined with the Queen, and remained over 
night. Saturday, March 3, 1894, Mr. Gladstone 
tendered his resignation as Premier to the Queen, 
who accepted it with many expressions of favor 
and regret, and offered him again a peerage, 
which was declined. On the way to Windsor 
and return to London, Mr. Gladstone was greeted 
by a large and enthusiastic crowd. Hundreds of 
letters and telegrams expressing regret, because 
of his retirement, were received by the ex-Premier, 
On Sunday he attended church as usual and was 
looking well, Mr. Balfour in the Commons, and 
Lord Salisbury in the Lords, vied with Mr. Glad- 
stone's political friends in speaking his praise, 
and referring in the highest terms to his char- 
acter and labors. The press in all parts of the 
world spoke in glowing terms of his natural 
endowments, great attainments, invaluable ser- 
vices, pure character and wonderfully vigorous 



f^^ t -'^ti^^^^^^^^^f ?f f l^'S^S^r "' "•;:: v; J 




Queen and Premier — The Last Audience 



Prime Minister the Fourth Time 525 

old age. It was quite evident that Mr. Glad- 
stone's retirement was not enforced by mental or 
physical infirmities, or by his unfitness for the 
leadership of the House and the Premiership, but 
that as a wise precaution, and upon the solicita- 
tion of his famity, he had laid down his power 
while he was yet able to wield it with astonishing 
vigor. Thus closed the fourth administration of 
this remarkable man, the greatest English states- 
man of his time. In all history there is no 
parallel case, and no official record such as his. 
Lord Rosebery was appointed Premier in 
the place of Mr. Gladstone, and Sir William V. 
Harcourt became the leader of the Liberal party 
in the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone wrote 
congratulating Lord Rosebery, and promised to 
aid him whenever his assistance was required. 
In assuming office Lord Rosebery eulogized 
Mr. Gladstone, and announced that there would 
be no change in the policy of reform of the 
Liberal party under the new administration, and 
declared for Home Rule for Ireland, the disestab- 
lishment of the church in Wales and Scotland, 
and the reform of the House of Lords. 




CHAPTER XX. 
IN Private Life. 

/JUSTIN McCarthy, in the closing pages 

f j of his Story of Gladstone's Life, says : 

\^Jw^ ''The long political struggle was over 

(M and done. The heat of the opposition 

this way and that had gone out forever, 

and Mr. Gladstone had none left but friends on 

both sides of the political field. Probably that 

ceremonial, that installation of the Prince of 

Wales as Chancellor of the Welsh University, 

was the last occasion on which Mr. Gladstone 

would consent to make an appearance on a public 

platform. It was a graceful close to such a 

great career." 

The occasion referred to was the ceremonial 
at Aberystwith, Wales, June 26, 1896, when the 
Prince of Wales was installed as Chancellor of 
the Welsh University, and when the Prince pre- 
sented to the Princess of Wales and to Mr. Glad- 
stone honorary degrees conferred upon them by 
the University. The appearance of Mr. Glad- 
stone was the signal for great applause. The 

Prince in his remarks was very comDlimentary 

526 



In private life. 527 

to Mr. Gladstone, and spoke of the honor paid 
the University by the presence of the aged schol- 
ar and. statesman, and also said it was truly one 
of the proudest moments of his life, when he 
found himself in the flattering position of being 
able to confer an academic honor upon one fur- 
nishing the rare instance of occupying the high- 
est position as a statesman and who at the same 
time had attained such distinction in scholarship. 

But Mr. McCarthy was mistaken about this 
being the closing public service in the life of 
Mr. Gladstone. It was very far from his last 
public appearance. After that event Mr. Glad- 
stone appeared repeatedly. Though his ofiicial 
life had closed, yet he was to emerge from retire- 
ment many times, and especially when it became 
necessary for him to raise his strong voice for 
humanity. His advocacy of the great causes of 
Armenian rescue, of Grecian independence, of 
Arbitration instead of War, and the unity and 
harmony of the two great English-speaking peo- 
ple, was given with all the old time fire of youth. 
What Mr. Gladstone did and said with pen and 
voice since the occasion mentioned, was enough 
not only for another chapter, but a whole volume, 
and sufficient alone to immortalize any man. 

After the great struggle for Home Rule and 
during the sultry summer of 1893, Mr. Gladstone 
repaired to his favorite winter resort, Biarritz, in 
the south of France, It was while he was there 



528 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

that rumors of his resignation were heard, based 
on the ground of his failing health. Dr. Grang- 
er, of Chester, who was also an oculist, was sum- 
moned to examine Mr. Gladstone's eyes. He 
told Mr. Gladstone that a cataract had obliterated 
the sight of one eye, and that another cataract 
had begun to form on the other. In other words 
Mr. Gladstone was threatened with total blind- 
ness. The Prime Minister reflected a moment, 
and then requested — almost ordered — the physi- 
cian to operate immediately upon his eye. He 
said : ''I wish you to remove the cataract at 
once." The physician replied that it was not far 
enough advanced for an operation. ''You do not 
understand me," answered the patient, "it is the 
old cataract I wish removed. If that is out of. 
the way, I shall still have one good eye, when 
the new cataract impairs the sight of the other." 
As the physician still hesitated, Mr. Gladstone 
continued : "You still seem not to understand 
me. I want you to perform the operation here 
and now while I am sitting in this chair." "But 
it might not be successful," said Dr. Granger. 
"That is a risk I accept," was the instant reply. 
However, the physician dared not then undertake 
it, and afterwards said that Mr. Gladstone's eyes 
were as good as they were a year before, and 
that his general health was also good. 

In May, 1894, Mr. Gladstone's eye was suc- 
cessfully operated upon for cataract. He took no 



In private life. 531 

anaesthetic, and was conscious during the time. 
Every precaution was taken to insure success, 
and the patient was put to bed for rest and quiet 
and kept on low diet. Mr. Gladstone's eyes were 
so improved by judicious treatment that before 
long he could read ten or twelve hours a day. 
This could be regarded as complete restoration 
of sight, and enabled him, upon his retirement 
from public life, to devote himself to the work 
he so well loved when at home in his study at 
Hawarden. 

Mr. Gladstone's retirement from public life, 
from the Premiership, the Cabinet, the leadership 
of the Liberal Party, and from Parliament did 
not mean his entrance upon a period of inactivity. 
In the shades of Hawarden and in the quiet of his 
study he kept up the industry that had charact- 
erized his whole life heretofore. 

It had been the custom for centuries for 
English statesmen, upon retiring from official 
life, to devote themselves to the classics. Mr. 
Gladstone, who was pre-eminently a statesman- 
scholar, found it very congenial to his mind 
and habits to follow this old English cus- 
tom. He first translated and published ^^The 
Odes of Horace." Then he took Butler's ''Anal- 
ogy" as a text book, and prepared and published 
''Studies Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop 
Butler." The discussion necessarily takes a 
wide range, treating, among other matters, of 



532 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

Butler's method, its application to the Scriptures, 
the future life, miracles and the mediation of 
Christ. Says W. T. Stead : "No one who reads the 
strenuous arguments with which Mr. Gladstone 
summarizes the reasoning of Bishop Butler on 
the future life is conscious of any weakening in 
the vigorous dialectic which was so often employ- 
ed with brilliant success in the House of Com- 
mons." 

One of Mr. Gladstone's latest productions 
was his "Personal Recollections of Arthur H. 
Hallam," which was written for the "Youth's 
Companion." It is a tribute to the memory and 
worth of one of his early friends at Eton. 

These and other literary works occupied most 
of his time. But Mr. Gladstone would not con- 
tent himself with quiet literary work. He had 
too long and too intensely been active in the 
world's great movements and on humanity's 
behalf to stand aloof. Hence it was not long be- 
fore he was again in the ar.ena, doing valiant ser- 
vice for the Armenian and against the Turk. 

In 1892 the Sultan, in the execution of a 
plan devised in 1890, issued an edict against re- 
ligious freedom. In 1894, he threw off the mask 
and began to execute his deliberate and precon- 
certed plan Jto force all Christian Armenians to 
become Mohammedans or to die. Robbery, out- 
rage and murder were the means used by the 
hands of brutal soldiers. 



IN PRIVATE LIFE. C33 

In a letter to an indignation meeting Held 
in London, December lytli, 1894, Mr. Gladstone 
wrote denouncing these outrages of the Turks. 
The reading of the letter was greeted with pro- 
longed applause. 

A deputation of Armenian gentlemen, resid- 
ing in London and in Paris, took occasion on Mr. 
Gladstone's 85th birthday, December 29th, 1894, 
to present a silver chalice to Hawarden Church 
as ^*a memorial of Mr. Gladstone's sympathy 
with and assistance to the Armenian people." 
Mr. Gladstone's address to the deputation was 
regarded as one of the most peculiar and char- 
acteristic acts of his life. He gave himself 
wholly to the cause of these oppressed people, 
and was stirred by the outrages and murders 
perpetrated upon them as he was 18 years before. 
He said . that the Turks should go out as they 
did go out of Bulgaria " bag and baggage," and 
he denounced the government of the Sultan as 
^^a disgrace to Mahomet, the prophet whom it 
professed to follow, a disgrace to civilization at 
large, and a curse to mankind." He contended 
that every nation had ever the right and the 
authority to act " on behalf of humanity and of 
justice." 

There were those who condemned Mr. Glad- 
stone's speech, declaring that it might disrupt 
the peace of Europe, but there were many others 
who thought that the sooner peace secured at 



534 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

such a cost was disturbed the better. It was but 
natural for those who wrongfully claimed the 
sovereign right to oppress their own subjects, to 
denounce all interference in the affairs of the 
Sultan. 

It was reported, March 19, 1895, that Francis 
Seymour Stevenson, M. , P., Chairman of the 
Anglo-Armenian Association, on behalf of the 
Tiflis Armenians, would present to Mr. Glad- 
stone, on his return to London, the ancient copy 
of the Armenian Gospels, inscribed upon vellum, 
which was to accompany the address to the ex-Pre- 
mier, then being signed by the Armenians there. 
In a letter Mr. Gladstone had but recently declared 
that he had abandoned all hope that the condition 
of affairs in Armenia would change for the better. 
The Sultan, he declared, was no longer worthy 
of the courtesies of diplomatic usage, or of Christ- 
ian tolerance. Mr. Gladstone promised that when 
these Gospels were formally presented to him 
he would deliver a "rattling" address on behalf 
of the Armenians. When a delegation waited on 
him, he said, after assuring them of his sympa- 
thy, that the danger in the Armenian situation 
now was that useful action might be abandoned, 
in view of the promises of the Turkish Govern- 
ment to institute reforms. 

In June 1895, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone at- 
tended the opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal 
as guests of Sir Donald Currie, on his steamship 



In Private life. 535 

Tantallon Castle, returning home on the the 
twenty-fifth. During this trip an effort was 
made to arrange for an interview between the 
Ex-Premier and the Prince Bismarck, but the 
Prince seemed disinclined and the project failed. 

It was while Mr. Gladstone was at Kiel, that 
the Rosebery Ministry fell by an accidental de- 
feat of the Liberal Party in Parliament, and 
which again brought Mr. Gladstone to the front 
in the public mind. Lord Rosebery telegraphed 
Mr, Gladstone full particulars of the situation, 
and Mr. Gladstone strongly advised against the 
resignation of the Government and urged that a 
vote of confidence be taken. Mr. Gladstone wrote 
that the Liberal Party could well afford to stand 
on its record. The Ministry with but two ex- 
ceptions, was the same, as that formed by Mr. 
Gladstone in August 1892, and had his confi- 
dence. 

Nevertheless, the cabinet of Lord Rosebery 
resigned, and the Marquis of Salisbury again be- 
came Prime Minister, — on the very day of Mr. 
Gladstone's arrival home. However Lord Rose- 
bery retained the leadership of the Liberal 
Party. 

There is no doubt that if the wishes of the 
Liberal Party had been gratified, Mr. Gladstone 
would have taken the leadership and again be- 
come Prime Minister. Subsequent events proved 
that he would have been equal, at least for a 



536 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

while, to the task of succeeding Lord Rosebery. 
But Mr. Gladstone was not willing. He refused 
to re-enter Parliament, and wrote a letter to his 
old constituents at Midlothian, declining their 
kind offer to send him to the House and bade them 
a kind farewell. In his letter he said that the Lib- 
eral Party is a party of progress and reform, and 
urged his constituents to stand by it. He re- 
garded the changes of the century exceedingly 
beneficial. 

August 6, 1895, ^^- Gladstone made a 
great speech at Chester. A meeting was held in 
the Town Hall to arouse public sentiment 
against the slaughter of Armenian Christains 
within the Empire of the Sultan by Turkish sol- 
diers, and to devise some means of putting an 
end to such crimes, and of punishing the oppres- 
sor. The audience was very large, including 
many Armenians resident in England, and rose 
with vociferous cheering when Mr. and Mrs. 
Gladstone, the Duke of Westminster, the Bishop 
of Chester, and the Mayor of Chester entered the 
hall. The Bishop of Ripon was already there. 
The Duke of Westminster presided, and read a 
letter from the Marquis of Salisbury, the Premier. 

Mr. Gladstone arose amid an outburst of 
enthusiastic applause, and addressing the vast 
audience said : 

That the massacres in Armenia resulted 
from intolerable government — perhaps the worst 



In Private life. 537 

in the world. He offered a resolution pledging 
the support of the entire nation to the British 
Government in its efforts to secure for the Ar- 
menians such reforms as would guarantee the 
safety of life, honor, religion and property. Mr, 
"Gladstone said that language failed to describe 
the horrors of the massacre of Sussoun, which 
made the blood run cold. The Sultan was re- 
sponsible, for these barbarities were not the act 
of the criminal class, such as afflicts every 
country, the malefactors who usually perpetrate 
horrible crime, but were perpetrated by the 
agents of the Sultan— the soldiers and the 
Kurds, tax-gatherers and police of the Turkish 
Government. And what had been done, and 
was daily being done, could be summed up in 
four awful words— plunder, murder, rape and 
torture. Plunder and murder were bad enough, 
but these were almost venial by the side of the 
work of the ravisher and the torturer. And the 
victims were defenceless men, women and child- 
ren—Armenians, one of the oldest Christian civ- 
ilized races, and one of the most pacific, indus- 
trious and intelligent races of the world. 

There was no exaggeration in the language 
used to describe the horrible outrages visited 
upon whole communities of innocent and help- 
less people. The truth of these terrible charges 
in their most hideous form, was established by 
unbiased American testimony, by Dr. Dillon, an 



538 WILLIAM E. Gladstone 

eye witness, and by tlie representatives of Eng- 
land, France and Russia. 

Nothing but a sense of duty, said Mr. Glad- 
stone, bad brought bim at bis age to resign tbe 
repose, wbicb was tbe last of many great eartbly 
blessings remaining to bim, to address tbem. 

If tbe Powers of Europe were to recede be- 
fore tbe irrational resistance of tbe Sultan, tbey 
would be disgraced in tbe eyes of tbe world, and 
tbe Christian population of the Turkish Empire 
would be doomed to extermination, according to 
tbe plan of the Porte. Terrible word, but true 
in its application. 

As to tbe remedy the cleanest was to make 
the Turk march out of Armenia, as be did out 
of Bulgaria, '' bag and baggage." He cautioned 
against trusting the promises of the government 
at Constantinople, which he knew from long ex- 
perience, were worthless ; and declared that tbe 
Sultan was bound by no treaty obligation. The 
word "ought'' was not heeded at Constantinople, 
but the word " must " was understood fully there. 
Coercion was a word perfectly comprehended 
there — a drastic dose which never failed. If we 
have the smallest regard for humanity, be con- 
cluded, we shall, with the help of God, demand 
that wbicb is just and necessary. Mr. Glad- 
stone was frequently and loudly applauded dur- 
ing his speech, at the conclusion of wbicb tbe 
resolution was adopted, ^ 



In Private life. 539 

The most powerful voice in all Britain had 
been raised with stirring and thrilling power for 
justice and humanity. The testimony of an eye 
witness is to the effect, that never did the 
grand old man seem in finer form. His un- 
dimmed eye flashed as he spoke with withering 
scorn against hypocrisy and with hottest hate 
against wrong. His natural force was not abated, 
his health robust, and his conviction unsubdued. 
His deeply lined and pale face was transfigured 
with the glow of righteous indignation. The 
aged statesman was in his old House of Com- 
mons vigor. " There was the same facile move- 
ment of his body, and the same penetrating look 
as though he would pierce the very soul of his 
auditors ; the same triumphant march of sentence 
after sentence to their chosen goal, and yet the 
same subtle method of introducing qualifying 
clauses all along the march without loosing the 
grip of his theme ; the same ascent to lofty prin- 
ciples and commanding generalizations, blended 
with the complete mastery of details ; and, 
above all, the same sublimity of outlook and 
ringing emphasis of sincerity in every tone." 
It was an occasion never to be forgotten. A dis- 
tinguished hearer said : "To read his speech, 
as thousands will, is much ; but to have heard 
it, to have felt it-oh! that is simply indescribable, 
and will mark for many, one of the most memor- 
able days of this last decade of this closing century, 



540 William e. Gladstone 

The sweet cadence of his voice, the fascination of 
his personality, and, above all, the consecration 
of his splendid gifts to the cause of plundered 
men and ravished women, raise the occasion into 
prominence in the annals of a great people. 
Chiefly, I feel the triumphs of soul. His utter- 
ance of the words Vives,' 'women,' lifted them 
into an atmosphere of awe and solemnity, and 
his tone in speaking of 'rape' and 'torture' gave 
them an ineffable loathsomeness. It seemed as 
if so much soul had never been put into a 
Saxon speech. Keen satire, rasping rebuke, an 
avalanche of indignation, rapier-like thrusts to 
the vital fibre of the situation, and withal the 
invincible cogency of argument against the 
Turkish Government, gave the oration a primary 
place amongst the master-pieces of human elo- 
quence." 

In the course of this famous speech Mr. 
Gladstone referred to America ; once when wel- 
coming the sympathy of the American people 
with the suffering Armenians, and again as he 
described the testimony of the United States as 
a witness that gained enormously in value be- 
cause it was entirely free from suspicion. 

A large meeting was held in St. James Hall, 
London, October 19, 1896, in memory of Christ- 
ian Martyrs in Turkey. The Bishop of Roches- 
ter presided. The hall was packed with an audi- 
ence of 2,600, while nearly 7,000 applied for 



In Private Life. 54i 

admission. Many prominent persons were pre- 
sent. The large andience was in sombre funeral 
attire. About thirty front seats were occupied 
by Armenians. It was stated that 60,000 Armen- 
ians so far had been murdered with tortures and 
indignities indescribable. To this meeting Mr. 
Gladstone addressed a letter which was greeted 
with the wildest enthusiasm. He said that he 
hoped the meeting would worthily crown fhe 
Armenian meetings of the past two months, 
which were without a parallel during his politi- 
cal life. The great object, he said, was to 
strengthen Lord Salisbury's hands and to stop 
the series of massacres, which were probably 
still unfinished, and to provide against their re- 
newal. As he believed that Lord Salisbury would 
use his powerful position for the best, personally 
he objected in the strongest manner to abridging 
Lord Salisbury's discretion by laying down this 
or that as things which he ought not to do. It 
was a wild paradox, without the support of rea- 
son or history, to say that the enforcement of 
treaty rights to stop systematic massacre, to- 
gether with effective security against Great Bri- 
tain's abusing them for selfish ends, would pro- 
voke the hostilities of one or more of the powers. 
To advertise beforehand in the ears of the 
Great Assassin that Great Britain's action would 
cut down— what the most backward of the six 
Powers think to be sufficient—would be th 



, . , Ok 



542 William E. Gladstone. 

abandonment of duty and prudence and would 
be to doom the national movement to disappoint- 
ment. The concert of Europe was valuable and 
important, but sucb an announcement would be 
certain to be followed by its failure. 

One of the immediate effects of Mr. Glad- 
stone's denunciation of the Sultan for the Ar- 
menian massacres was the resignation by Lord 
Rosebery of the leadership of the Liberal Party. 
Mr. Gladstone's return to politics, the agitation 
of the Turkish question and the differences be- 
tween these two leaders of the Liberal movement 
as to the best way of dealing with the Sultan, 
were assigned as reasons by Lord Rosebery for 
his resignation. 

It was then again suggested that Mr. Glad- 
stone assume the leadership of the Liberal Party 
and accept a peerage and a seat in the House of 
Lords, so often tendered him by the Queen. 
Then Sir William Vernon-Harcourt could lead 
in the House of Commons and bear the burden, 
while Mr. Gladstone could be at the head of af- 
fairs without the worry of the House of Com- 
mons. Besides, Mr. Morgan offered to resign 
his seat in the House of Commons in his favor. 
But Mr. Gladstone would not agree to any of 
these plans as far as they pertained to himself. 

July 22, 1896, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone re- 
turned to London to attend a great social func- 
tion, the marriage of one of the daughters of 



In Private life. 543 

the Prince and Princess of Wales to Prince 
Charles of Denmark. Mr. Gladstone evinced 
much interest in everything connected with the 
important event, and was himself the object of 
much attention. 

September 23, 1896, Mr. Gladstone wrote a 
long letter to the Paris Figaro in response to an 
appeal from its editor, M. Leudet, to Mr. Glad- 
stone to arouse the French press in behalf of the 
Armenians. After expressing his diffidence in 
complying with the request, Mr. Gladstone de- 
clared his belief that the population of Great 
Britain were more united in sentiment and more 
thoroughly aroused by the present outrages in 
Turkey than they were by the atrocities in Bul- 
garia in 1876. 

He said : " The question whether effect can 
be given to the national indignation is now in 
the balance, and will probably soon be decided. 
I have read in some Austrian newspapers an af- 
fected scruple against sole action by any one 
State in a European crisis, but there are two 
first-class Powers who will not make that scruple 
their own. One of these is Russia, who in 1878, 
earned lasting honors by liberating Bulgaria and 
helping onward the freedom and security of other 
Balkan States. The other Power is France, who, 
in 1840, took up the cause of Egypt and pushed 
it single handed to the verge of a European war. 
She wisely forbore to bring about that horrible, 



544 William e. Gladstone. 

transcendent calamity, but I gravely doubt 
whether she was not right and the combined 
Powers wrong in their policy of that period/^ 

Mr. Gladstone denounced the Sultan as the 
"Great Assassin," and continued: "For more 
than a year he has triumphed over the diplomacy 
of the six Powers, they have been laid prostrate 
at his feet. There is no parallel in history to 
the humiliation they have patiently borne. He 
has therefore had every encouragement to con- 
tinue a course that has been crowned with such 
success. The impending question seems to be, 
not whether, but when and where he will pro- 
ceed to his next murderous exploits. The ques- 
tion for Europe and each Power is whether he 
shall be permitted to swell by more myriads the 
tremendous total of his victims. 

" In other years when I possessed power I 
did my best to promote the concert of Europe, 
but I sorrowfully admit that all the good done 
in Turkey during the last twenty years was 
done, not by it, but more nearly despite it." The 
letter concludes by expressing the hope that the 
French people would pursue a policy worthy of 
their greatness, their fame and the high place 
they have held in European Christian history. 

September 24, 1896, a meeting was called 
by the Reform Club, of Liverpool, to protest 
against the recent massacres of 2000 Armenians 
at Constantinople at the affair of the Ottoman 



In privatb Life. 545 

Bank, and many more throughout the Turkish 
Empire. Mr. Gladstone was asked to address 
tke meeting. When requested by the agent of 
the Associated Press for an advanced proof of his 
speech he declined, but wrote that he would 
^' recommend giving the warmest support to the 
Queen's government, and would contend that 
England should act alone if necessary for the 
fulfillment of the covenants which have been so 
disgracefully broken . ' ' 

Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, with their son 
Herbert, arrived at noon at Liverpool, and were 
met at the railroad station by 2,000 enthusiastic 
people. The meeting was held in the vast audi- 
torium of the Circus Building, which was filled. 
Thousands failed to obtain entrance. 

Before the arrival of Mr. Gladstone there 
was a spontaneous outburst of applause, every- 
body present standing and singing " God save 
the Queen.'' When Mr. Gladstone entered, the 
prolonged roar of applause could be heard for 
miles, arising from thousands inside and outside 
the hall. 

The Earl of Derby, Conservative, presided. 
He was accompanied by the Countess of Derby, 
who with many distinguished persons occupied 
the platform. 

Mr. Gladstone stepped briskly to the front 
of the platform at 12.30 p. m. bowing repeat- 
edly in response to the applause. He looked 



546 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

strong and well for a man of his age and labois, 
and was easily heard. After a few prelim- 
inary remarks, lie moved the following reso- 
lution : 

'' That this meeting trusts that Her Majes- 
ty's ministers, realizing to the fullest extent the 
terrible condition in which their fellow Christians 
are placed, will do everything possible to obtain 
for them full security and protection ; and this 
meeting assures Her Majesty's ministers that 
they may rely upon the cordial support of the 
citizens of Liverpool in whatever steps they may 
feel it necessary to take for that purpose." 

The resolution was received with great 
cheering. 

Mr. Gladstone resumed : ''We have a just 
title to threaten Turkey with coercion, but that 
does not in itself mean war ; and I think that 
the first step should be the recall of our Ambas- 
sador, and it should be followed by the dismissal 
of the Turkish Ambassador from London. Such 
a course is frequent and would not give the 
right of complaint to anybody. When diplo- 
matic relations are suspended, England should 
inform the Sultan that she should consider the 
means of enforcing her just and humane de- 
mands. I do not believe that Europe will make 
war to insure the continuance of massacres more 
terrible than ever recorded in the dismal, deplor- 
able history of crime, 



In private life. 547 

" Now, as in 1876, to the guilt of massacre is 
added the impudence of denial, wliicli will con- 
tinue just as long as Europe is content to listen. 
I doubt if it is an exaggeration to say that it was 
in the Sultan's palace, and there only, that the 
inspiration has been supplied, and the policy 
devised of the whole series of massacres. When 
the Sultan carries massacre into his own capital 
under the eyes of the Ambassadors, he appears 
to have gained the very acme of what it is possi- 
ble for him to do. But the weakness of diplom- 
acy, I trust, is about to be strengthened by the 
echo of this nation's voice." 

Mr. Gladstone then referred to " the supine- 
ness of the Ambassadors of the Powers at Con- 
stantinople, and continued : '^ The concert of 
Europe is an august and useful instrument, but 
it has not usually succeeded in dealing with the 
Eastern question, which has arrived at a period 
when it is necessary to strengthen the hands of 
the Government by an expression of national 
opinion. I believe that the continued presence 
of the Ambassadors at Constantinople has oper- 
ated as a distinct countenance to the Sultan, 
who is thus their recognized ally. 

^^ But, while urging the Government. to act, 
it does not follow that, even for the sake of the 
great object in view, Great Britain should trans- 
plant Enrope into a state of war. On the other 
hand, however, I deny that England mAist 



548 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE.. 

abandon iier own riglit to independent judgment 
and allow herself to be domineered over by tbe 
otber powers." 

Mr. Gladstone expressed tbe opinion tbat 
tbe purpose of tbe meeting was defensive and 
prospective, saying that no one can hold out the 
hope that the massacres are ended, although he 
ventured to anticipate that the words spoken at 
the meeting would find their way to the palace at 
Constantinople. " The present movement," he 
said, ^'is based on broad grounds of humanity, and 
is not directed against the Mohammedans, but 
against the Turkish officials, evidence of whose 
barbarities rests in credible official reports." Mr. 
Gladstone declared his adhesion to the principles 
contained in the resolution, and said he came to 
the meeting not claiming any authority for sen- 
timents expressed except that of a citizen of 
Liverpool. 

'' But," he remarked, '^ the national platform 
upon which the meeting is based gives greater 
authority for sentiments universally entertained 
throughout the length and breadth of the land, 
and I urge that in this matter party sympathy 
be renounced. I entertain the lively hope and 
strong belief that the present deplorable situation 
is not due to the act or default of the Govern- 
ment of this great country." 

Mr. Gladstone spoke about twenty minutes 
and was repeatedly interrupted by applause. He 



In Private life. 549 

was in good voice, and did not seem fatigued 
when lie had finished. 

The next day the Turkish Embassy at 
London telegraphed Mr. Gladstone's speech at 
Liverpool verbatim to the Sultan. 

The London Times in an editorial said : 
^'The spectacle of the veteran statesman quitting 
his retirement to plead the cause of the oppressed 
is well calculated to move the sympathy and 
admiration of the nation. The ardor of Mr. 
Gladstone's feelings on this subject is notorious. 
All the more striking and significant is the 
comparative restraint and moderation of the 
speech.' 

Other questions besides those mentioned 
were claiming the attention of English states- 
men. In the Spring, prior to the great Liverpool 
meeting, the Venezuela boundary question was 
agitating the two great English speaking nations 
to the very verge of war. A large Peace Meet- 
ing was held in London, March 3, 1896, to favor 
arbitration. Mr. Gladstone wrote : '^ I am glad 
that the discussion of arbitration is to be separa- 
ted from the Venezuela question, upon which I 
do not feel myself in final and full possession of 
the facts that I should wish. My views on arbi- 
tration in place of war were gathered from the 
part I took in the matter of the Alabama claims. 
I will only add that my conviction and senti- 
ment on the subject grow in strength from year 



550 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

to year in proportion to tlie growth, of tHat mon- 
strous and barbarous militarism, in regard to 
wbicli I consider England lias to bear no small 
responsibility.'^ 

The meeting favored permanent interna- 
tional arbitration, and an Anglo-American treaty 
was finally signed by the representatives of the 
two nations, providing for the settlement of all 
questions between the two nations by arbitration 
instead of by war, but the Senate of the United 
States refused to ratify the treat}^ 

Mr. Gladstone deplored intensely the extra- 
ordinary misunderstanding which had prevailed 
on the subject of the Venezuela frontier. He 
seemed to think that nothing but a little com- 
mon sense was needed to secure the pacific settle- 
ment of the question at any moment. A hun- 
dred square miles more or less on either side of 
the boundary of British Guiana was to him a 
matter of supreme indifference. He was ex- 
tremely* anxious to see justice done, and one of 
his last speeches in the House of Commons was 
in favor of permanent arbitration between Eng- 
land and the United States. 

Another one of the absorbing questions 
that came before the civilized world for consider- 
ation, and almost to the exclusion of the Armen- 
ian question, was the Cretan Question. Greece 
heroically sustained the insurrection of the 
Cretans against the Turkish rule. The scene of 



In Private Life. 551 

Turkisli cruelty was now transferred to the isle 
of Crete. For the time the Armenian massa- 
cres were forgotten. The Greeks rushed to the 
rescue, while all Europe held aloof. Mr. Glad- 
stone senf the following dispatch to the Chron- 
icle : ^^I do not dare to stimulate Greece when I 
cannot help her, but I shall profoundly rejoice at 
her success. I hope the Powers will recollect 
that they have their own character to redeem." 
This was in February, 1897. Later he wrote 
that to expel the Greek troops from Crete and 
keep as police the butchers of Armenia, would 
further deepen the disgrace of the Powers of 
Europe. 

In March, 1897, Mr. Gladstone addressed a 
letter, now justly celebrated, on the same sub- 
ject to the Duke of Westminster in which he 
expressed his opinion more fully, and which was 
evidently the sentiment of the English speaking 
people of the world. The letter was in the form 
of a pamphlet of 16 pages, published, and enti- 
tled The Eastern Crisis. 

In less than a week after this eloquent man- 
ifesto in behalf of the Cretans and of Greece was 
put forth, it was currently reported that the pre- 
cise solution of the problem recommended by 
Mr. Gladstone was likely to be adopted. The 
Sultan himself, fearful of the effect of the ap- 
peal on public opinion in Europe, sought the 
settlement of the question in the manner sug- 



552 William e. Gladstone. 

gested. The Greeks still clamored for war. In 
the war that followed between Greece and Turkey, 
Greece was defeated and crushed by the Turk. 
Only by the intervention of the Powers was 
Greece saved from becoming a part M the Sul- 
tan's Empire. 

After peace had been concluded between 
Turkey and Greece, Mr. Gladstone undertook to 
arouse public opinion by a trenchant review of 
the situation. Looking back over the past two 
years of England's Eastern policy, he inquires 
as to what have been the results, and then an- 
swers his own question. He thus enumerates : 

1. The slaughter of 100,000 Armenian 
Christians, men, women and children, with no 
guarantee against a repetition of the crime. 

2. The Turkish Empire stronger than at 
any time since the Crimean war. 

3. Christian Greece weaker than at any 
time since she became a kingdom. 

These are facts, Mr. Gladstone claimed, for 
which the leading Christian nations and states- 
men of Europe are responsible. 

While Mr. Gladstone thus expresses him- 
self, yet his vigorous protests had not been with- 
out effect. His voice penetrated into the very 
palace of the Sultan, and into every Cabinet of 
Europe, and was heard by every statesman and 
ruler throughout the world, and aroused the 
people everywhere. It was a mighty voice lifted 



In private Life. 553 



for right and against oppression. The Sultan 
was afraid and was compelled to desist ; not that 
he feared the protests and the warnings of the 
Christian Nations of Europe, but because that 
one voice was the expression of the popular feel- 
ing of all Christians throughout the world, and 
to defy such sentiment would be to court the 
overthrow of his throne, if not of the dominion 
of the Turk in Europe. 

In June, 1894, an invitation was extended to 
Mr. Gladstone to visit the United States, signed 
by many representative men in public life. But 
Mr. Gladstone, while acknowledging the com- 
pliment, declined because of his age. It would, 
he thought, be a tremendous undertaking for 
him. The fatigue of the voyage and the strain 
of the receptions while in America, would prove 
greater than his physical condition could bear. 

Later Mr. Gladstone was waited on at Haw- 
arden by one hundred members of the Philadel- 
phia Manufacturer's Club. He personally es- 
corted them over the Castle grounds and narra- 
ted the history of the Castle to them. Greatly 
pleased with the warmth of their reception, they 
thanked Mr. Gladstone for his courtesy. They 
then gave him three cheers. This token of ap- 
preciation was very gratifying to Mr. Gladstone, 
who said that it was the first time he had ever 
heard American cheers. 



554 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

Saturday afternoon, August 15, 1896, Li 
Hung Chang, the great Chinese Statesman and 
Embassador, visited Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden. 
Probably the three greatest living statesmen of 
the time were Gladstone, Bismarck and Li Hung 
Chang. The Embassador and his suite went to 
Chester in a special train, and were driven in 
three open carriages to^ Hawarden. Along the 
route as, well as at the station, the party was 
cheered by a large crowd. The Viceroy was 
sleeping when the train reached Chester and he 
was allowed to sl^ep until he awoke. Yet the 
party was ahead of time in reaching the Castle, 
but Mr. Gladstone hastened to receive them. The 
Chinese visitors were received at the door by Mr. 
Henry Gladstone. Li Hung Chang was escorted 
into the Library where he was introduced to Mr. 
and Mrs. Gladstone. 

The intention of Mr. Gladstone was to have 
as escort a guard of honor to the Viceroy, the 
Hawarden corps of the Welsh Fusiliers, which 
reached the Castle, owing to the visitors being 
ahead of time, ten minutes after the arrival of 
the party. 

The two aged statesmen sat near the win- 
dow overlooking the terrace, and at once, with the 
aid of Lo Feug Luh, engaged in conversation, 
Li asked various questions concerning Mr. Glad- 
stone's career, and was informed by Mr. Glad- 
Stone that he had been Prime Minister nearly 



In Private Life. 555 

thirteen years, and in the Cabinet nearly twenty- 
fonr years. When complimented npon the service 
he had rendered to his country, Mr. Gladstone 
replied that he had done what he could, but he 
should have done a great deal more. Li observed 
that British interests and British trade in China 
were greater than those of all other countries put 
together. The Viceroy also talked with Mr. 
Gladstone of free trade, of restrictions upon com- 
merce, of the power of the British Navy, of the 
greatness of the British Revenues, of the vast- 
ness of the Colonial Empire, of the necessity 
of a railway system to commerce and upon a 
number of similar subjects. Refreshments were 
served which Li enjoyed, and then by request he 
wrote his autograph in three books, using Doro- 
thy Drew's colors for the purpose. Mr. Glad- 
stone and Li were photographed together sitting 
on chairs outside the porch. Mr. Gladstone 
presented Li with three books from his library, 
and then the Chinese visitors departed. 

On Saturday evening October 10, 1896, the 
Right Hon. and Most Rev. Edward White Ben- 
son, D. D., Archbishop of Canterbury and Pri- 
mate of all England, arrived at Hawarden with 
Mrs, Benson on a visit to his old friend Mr. 
Gladstone. Sunday morning Dr. Benson went 
with the Gladstone family to Hawarden Church 
and occupied the Gladstone pew. After the 
service had commenced a commotion was ob- 



556 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

seived. It was caused by tlie fall of Dr. Benson 
in the pew while kneeling in prayer. Attendants 
removed Dr. Benson to the Rector}^, and medical 
aid was summoned, but death came soon after 
from apoplexy. The Rev. Stephen Gladstone, 
rector, proceeded with the service until notified 
of the death of the Archbishop, when he dis- 
missed the congregation. Mr. Gladstone, who 
had not attended church from indisposition, was 
deeply affected by the death of his guest and 
friend. 

The morning papers of London, June i, 
1896, printed a long letter from Mr. Gladstone 
to Cardinal Rampolla for submission to the Pope 
Leo XIII, in favor of the unity of Christendom 
by means of a papal declaration in favor of the 
validity of Anglican orders. It created a great 
sensation. Shortly after this the Pope issued an 
Encyclical letter addressed to " all bishops in 
communion with the Holy See," The theme 
was the same as that of Mr. Gladstone's letter, 
to which it was regarded as an answer. The Pope 
invited all the English people ''to return to the 
religion of the Roman Catholic Church." "This," 
remarks Mr. Justin JMcCarth}^, '*was exactly 
what any thoughful person might have expected." 
While this letter and its answer did not satisfy 
the clergy of the established Churcl; of England^ 
who were favorably disposed towards Rome, on 
the other hand it aroused the dissenting Christ- 



In Private life. «:57 

ians of England to reply that they were opposed 
to all state or established churches, whether Ro- 
man Catholic or English Episcopal. 

On December 29, 1896, the eighty-seventh 
anniversary of Mr. Gladstone's birth was cele- 
brated at Hawarden, surrounded by his family 
and friends. There were the usual demon- 
strations by the villagers, consisting in the ring- 
ing of bells and the appointments of deputations 
to wait upon the aged statesman at the Castle 
with congratulations. An enormous flow of tele- 
grams and messages continued throughout the 
day from all parts of the kingdom, the United 
States and the Continent. Among those send- 
ing congratulations were the Prince and Princess 
of Wales, and Baroness de Rothschild. Mr. 
Gladstone was in good health, and in the after- 
noon went out for a walk. 

May 10, 1897, the Prince and Princess of 
Wales, accompanied by the Princess Victoria, 
visited Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone at Hawarden. 
They were received by Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone 
in the porch erected in 1889 to commemorate 
their golden wedding. The mutual greetings 
were of the heartiest nature. The royal party 
inspected the ruins of the old castle, Mr. Glad- 
stone acting as escort to the Princess of Wales. 
An interesting incident occurred on the lawn. 
The Princess took great interest in inspecting 
the favorite dogs of the Gladstone family. 



55S WILLIAM E. Gladstone 

These were tlie black Pomeranians. Two pup- 
pies were carried in a basket, one of whicb the 
Princess accepted as a gift. 

June 22, 1897, w^^ celebrated with great 
pomp and rejoicing the Diamond Jubilee of 
Victoria, the Queen of England and Empress of 
India, when the Queen reached the 60th anni- 
versary of her reign, which is the longest in 
English history. Victoria became queen at the 
age of 19 years, in 1837, and then the British 
Isles possessed a population of 26,000,000 and 
they had became 40,000,000. Her Empire has 
been extended until in India, South, Central and 
Western Africa, Australia, New Zealand and 
North America, and including the British Isles, 
there were 360,000,000 people who owned her 
sway. And to this greatness and glory Mr. 
Gladstone had been one to contribute largely, 
while his influence has been felt more still by 
far in promoting the moral greatness of the 
people. Throughout all the Empire the event 
was celebrated, and the jubilee procession in 
London was swollen by representatives of all 
parts of the Queen's domain and all nations on 
earth which rendered it the greatest pageant 
ever beheld. Even the Turk was there, but Mr. 
Gladstone was not there, nor was his name even 
mentioned for a place in the march on jubilee day. 
Yet the period of Victoria's reign will often be 
spoken of in history as the Gladstonian Era. 



In Private Life. 559 

"The public life of a leading statesman," 
says an eminent writer, " offers the boldest and 
stateliest outline to the public view. It may be 
that the most striking and memorable chapters 
in a future biography of Mr. Gladstone will con- 
tain the story of his private affairs and domestic 
life." His daily life at home was a model of 
simplicity and regularity, and the great secret 
of the vast amount of work he accomplished was 
owing to the fact that every odd frve minutes 
were occupied. He had a deep sense of the 
preciousness of time and the responsibility which 
everyone incurs who uses or misuses it. " To 
such a length did he carry this that at a picnic 
to a favorite Welsh mountain he has been seen 
to fling himself on the heather and bury himself 
in some pamphlet upon a question of the day, 
until called to lighter things by those who were 
responsible for the provision basket." 

Mr. Gladstone was ever a most severe econ- 
omist of time, a habit acquired as long ago as 1839, 
when he awed his young wife by filling up all 
odd bits and scraps of time with study or work. 
Out of his pocket would come the little classic at 
every chance opportunity of leisure. This ac- 
counts for his ability to get through in one day 
more than most people do in a week. Then be- 
sides, he had the faculty of concentrating the 
whole power of his mind upon the one thing be- 
fore him, whether small or great. He was 



56o WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

unable to divide the machinery of his mind. 
Interruption was almost fatal to his train of 
thought, but he was generally oblivious to con- 
versation buzzing around him. Hence it was 
some time before a questioner could get an an- 
swer — he did not seem to hear, but patience 
finally secured attention, after the train of absorb- 
ing thought was finished. 

It was this power of concentrating all his 
faculties upon what he was doing, whether it was 
work or play, that made Mr. Gladstone one of 
the ablest as well as happiest of the century. He 
took the keenest delight in the scholarly and 
beautiful, and this accounts for his disregard of 
minor ills and evils. He was too absorbed to be 
fretful or impatient. But to be absorbed in 
great things did not mean, in his case, to be 
neglectful of little things. At one time his mind 
and time were so completely taken up with the 
Eastern question, that he could not be induced 
to spare a thought for Ireland, and afterward it 
was quite as difiicult to get him to think of any 
political question except that of Ireland. 

In the daily routine of private life none in 
the household were more punctual and regular 
than Mr. Gladstone. At 8 o'clock he was 
up and in his study. From 1842 he always 
found time, with all his manifold duties, to go to 
church regularly, rain or shine, every morning 
except when' ill, at half-past 8 o'clock. He 



In private life. 561 

walked along the public road from tlie castle to 
Hawarden churcli. Writes an observer : ''THe 
old statesman, witb his fine, bale, gentle face, is 
an interesting figure as be walks ligbtly and 
briskly along tbe country road, silently acknowl- 
edging tbe fervent salutations of bis friends — tbe 
Hawarden villagers. He wears a long coat, well 
buttoned up, a long sbawl wrapped closely 
around bis neck, and a soft felt bat — a very dif- 
ferent figure from tbat of tbe Prime Minister as 
he is known in lyondon." 

At the Castle prayers were read to the fam- 
ily and household soon after 9 o'clock daily. 
His customary breakfast was comprised of a hard- 
boiled Qggj a slice of tongue, dry toast and tea. 
The whole morning whether at home or on a 
visit was devoted to business. Ltincheon at Ha- 
warden was without formality. ^Xunch was on 
the hob," for several hours, to be partaken of 
when it suited the convenience of the various mem- 
bers of the family. Tea, of which Mr. Glad- 
stone was particularly fond, and of which he 
could partake at any hour of the day, or night, 
was served in the afternoon at 5 o'clock, — after 
which he finished his correspondence. 

In the afternoon, Mr. Gladstone was accus- 
tomed to a walk in the grounds, accompanied by 
his faithful little black Pomeranian dog, Petz, who 
was obtained on a trip abroad, and became and 
remained for many years, an important member of 



562 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 

the household, and one of Mr. Gladstone's most 
devoted followers. Increasing years of over four- 
score, prevented finally walks of fifty miles a day 
once indulged in, and the axes stood unused in 
iheir stands in the vestibule and library, but still 
Mr. Gladstone £ept up his walks with his silent 
companion Petz. After walking for half an hour 
longer in his library after his return to the Cas- 
tle, Mr. Gladstone would dress for dinner, which 
operation usually took him from three to five 
minutes. At 8 o'clock he joined the family, at 
dinner, which was a cheerful meal. Like Goethe 
he ate heartily and enjoyed his meals, but his 
diet was extremely simple, Mr. Gladstone eating 
only what was prescribed by his physician. At 
dinner he talked freely and brilliantly even when 
none but his family were present. When visit- 
ors were present he would enter upon whatever 
was the subject of conversation, taking his 
share with others, and pouring a flood of light 
upon any theme suggested, giving all the bene- 
fit of the fund of wisdom and anecdote collected 
through two generations .of unparalleled politi- 
cal and social activity. 

After dinner, when there were no visitors 
at Hawarden, Mr. Gladstone would quietly sit 
reading in his library, or conversing with his 
family. He never used tobacco. Shortly after 
lo'clock he retired to bed and to sleep. He 
never allowed himself to think and be sleepless. 




Mr. and Mes. Gladstone, 1897. 



In Private life. 565 

Mr. BrigHt Had a habit of making his speeches 
after he had retired to bed, which Mr. Gladstone 
thought was detrimental to his health. Eight 
hours was the time Mr. Gladstone permitted 
himself to sleep. His bed-room was on the 
second floor and reached by a fine staircase. 
Everything in the room was plain and homely. 

On the walls of his bed-room and over the 
mantlepiece was a text emblazoned, on which at 
evening and morning he could look, which read : 
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose 
mind is stayed on thee." This not only ex- 
presses Mr. Gladstone's trust in God, but 
doubtless accounts in a large degree for that 
tranquility of mind so notably his, even in those 
trying times that prostrated many and carried 
many more away from their bearings. 

From the worry or weariness of busmess, 
Mr. Gladstone was ever ready to turn for rest 
to reading, which has thus proved of inestima- 
ble value to him. " His family cannot speak 
without emotion of that look of perfect happi- 
ness and peace that beamed from his eye on 
such occasions. '^ When during the general 
elections of 1882, this was denied him, he turned 
with equal readiness to writing and thinking 
on other subjects. During the Midlothian Cam- 
paign and General Election, and through the 
Cabinet making that followed, he relieved the 
pressure on his over-burdened brain by writing 



566 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 

an article on Home Rule, ^'written witli all the 
force and freshness of a first shock of discovery;'^ 
he was also writing daily on the Psalms ; he 
was preparing a paper for the Oriental Con- 
gress which was to startle the educated world by 
^' its originality and ingenuity ;" and he was com- 
posing with great and careful investigation his 
Oxford lecture on ^^ The rise and progress of 
learning in the University of Oxford.'* 

All during the morning hours he would sit 
in the silence of that comer-room on the ground 
floor reading. There were three writing-desks 
in the library, and one was chiefly reserved for 
correspondence of a political nature, and another 
for his literary work, while the third was used 
by Mrs. Gladstone. He spent his evenings 
when at Hawarden in a cosy corner of the library 
reading. He had a wonderfully constructed lamp 
so arranged for him for night reading, as to 
throw the utmost possible light on the pages of 
the book. It was generally a novel that em- 
ployed his mind at night. Occasionally he gives 
Mrs. Drew about two hundred novels to divide 
the sheep from the goats among them. She 
divides them into three classes — novels worth 
keeping, novels to be given away, and novels to 
be destroyed. 

Mr. Gladstone generally had three books in 
course of reading at the same time, changing 
from one to the other. These books were care- 



IN PRIVATE LIFE. 567 

fully selected witli reference to tlieir character 
and contents, and lie was particular as to tlieir 
order and variation. For instance at one time 
he was reading Dr. Laugen^s Roman History, in 
German, in the morning, Virgil in the afternoon, 
and a novel at night. Scott was his preference 
among novelists. He read with pencil in hand, 
and he had an elaborate system of marking a 
book. Aristotle, St. Augustine, Dante an(f 
Bishop Butler were the authors who had the 
deepest influence upon him, so he himself said. 
His copy of the Odyssey of Homer he had re- 
bound several times, as he preferred always to 
use the same copy. 

Mrs. Drew says of her father: *' There 
could not be a better illustration of his mind 
than his Temple of Peace — his study, with its 
extraordinarily methodical arrangement. Away 
from home he will write an exact description of 
the key or paper he requires, as : ^ Open the left 
hand drawer of the writing table nearest the fire- 
place, and at the back of the drawer, in the right 
hand corner, you will find some keys. You will 
see three on one string ; send me the one with 
such and such teeth.' His mind is arranged in 
the same way ; he has only to open a particular 
compartment, labelled so and so, to find the im- 
formation he requires. His memory in conse- 
quence is almost unfailing. It is commonly 
found that in old age the memory may be per- 



568 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 

feet as regards times long gone by, but inaccu- 
rate and defective as to more recent events. But 
with. Mr. Gladstone tbe things of the present are 
as deeply stamped on his brain as the things of 
the past." Some one has said of Mr. Gladstone 
that his memory was " terrible." It is evident 
that he always kept abreast of the times — inform- 
ing himself of everything new in literature, 
science and art, and when over eighty years of 
age was as ready to imbibe fresh ideas as when 
he was only eighteen, and far more discrimi- 
nating. 

Those who entered Mr. Gladstone's official 
room on a Sunday, during the busiest parliamen- 
tary session, could not fail to be struck by the 
atmosphere of repose, the signs and symbols 
of the day, the books lying open near the arm- 
chair, the deserted writing-table, the absence of 
papers and newspapers. On Sunday Mr. Glad- 
stone put away all business of a secular nature, 
occupied his time in reading special books, suit- 
able to the day, and generally attended church 
twice, never dined out, except he went on a mis- 
sion of mercy, or to cheer some sorrowful friend. 
When the Queen invited him to Windsor Castle 
on Sunday for one night, as she did sometimes, 
he always arranged to stay in Windsor Saturday. 
In his dressing room he kept a large open 
bible in which he daily read. Physically, 
intellectually and spiritually Mr. Gladstone's 



In iPRiVATE Life. 569 

Sundays were regarded by his family as a 
priceless blessing to Him, and to have made him 
the man he was. Mr. Gladstone had strict notions 
of his duty to his church. Whenever he estab- 
lished himself in London, he always attended the 
nearest church, and became regular in his atten- 
dance, not only on the Sabbath, but daily. With 
an empire on his shoulders he found time for 
daily public devotion, and in church-going he 
was no " gadabout." When he resided at Carl- 
ton House Terrace he attended the church of St. 
Martin-in-the-Fields. 

Mr. Gladstone's daily correspondence, when 
Prime Minister, was simply enormous. At first 
he felt it to be a conscientious duty to deal with 
the most of it himself, but finally came to trust 
the bulk of it to secretaries as other ministers 
did. Some letters came to him daily that he had 
to answer with his own hand ; for example, from 
ministers or on confidental business, from the 
court. At the end of every Cabinet Council the 
Premier has to write a letter with his own hand 
to his sovereign, giving full information of the 
business transacted. The same kind of report is 
required daily from Parliament. Of course Mr. 
Gladstone, whenever he was Prime Minister, 
faithfully attended to this duty and dispatched 
the required letters wHtten with his own hand to 
the Queen. 

Mr. Gladstone was remarkable for the 



570 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

strength and endurance of his body as well as 
for the vigor of his intellect. " Don't talk to 
me of Mr. Gladstone's mind," said a contempor- 
ary ; ^' it is his body which astonishes me." He 
never had any serious illness in his life, and 
up to quite recent years were vigorous ex- 
ercise, sometimes walking when in Scotland 20 
miles at a stretch over rough and mountainous 
country. The physical effort of speaking to 
twenty thousand people, and being heard in every 
part of the vast building by the audience, as was 
the case at Birmingham, in 1889, was remarkable. 
His power of endurance was wonderful. In 1882, 
he once sat up through an all-night sitting of the 
House of Commons, and going back to 10 Down- 
ing Street, at 8 o'clock in the morning, for half 
an hour's rest, again returned to the House and 
remained until the conclusion of the setting. 
Tree-cutting, which was with him a frequent 
recreation until he became a very old man, was 
chosen ^' as giving him the maximijim of healthy 
exercise in the minimum of time." This favor- 
ite pastime of the great stateman was so closely 
associated with him that it was deemed the prop- 
er thing to do to place on exhibition in the Great 
Columbian Exposition at Chicago one of the axes 
of Mr. Gladstone. 

The Psalmist says, /'A man was famous ac- 
cording as he had lifted up axes upon the thick 
trees." These singular words were written long 



In private life. 571 

before Mr. Gladstone's day, but famous a$ lie 
was for felling tlie great trees of the forest, tbe 
words have a deeper meaning and in more than 
one sense met their fulfilment in him. His 
swift and keen axe of reform brought down 
many hoary headed evils. Mr. Gladstone him- 
self explained why he cultivated this habit of 
cutting down trees. He said : '^ I chop wood be- 
cause I find that it is the only occupation in the 
world that drives all thought from rdy mind. 
When I walk or ride or play cricket, I am still 
debating important business problems, but when 
I chop wood I can think of nothing but making 
the chips fly." 

The following story illustrates Mr. Glad- 
stone's remarkable powers and the surprise he 
would spring upon those who met him. Two 
gentlemen who were invited guests at a table 
where Mr. Gladstone was expected, made a wa- 
ger that they would start a conversation on a 
subject about which even Mr. Gladstone would 
know nothing. To accomplish this end they 
^' read up" an ^'ancient" magazine article on 
some unfamiliar subject connected with Chinese 
manufactures. When the favorable opportunity 
came the topic was started, and the two conspira- 
tors watched with amusement the growing in- 
terest in the subject which Mr. Gladstone's face 
betrayed. Finally he joined in the conversation, 
and their amusement was turned into confusion, 



572 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

when Mr. Gladstone said, ''Ah, gentlemen, I 
perceive you have been reading an article I wrote 

in the Magazine some thirty or forty 

years ago. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



Closing Scenes of a Long and Eventful Life. 



Ky/^ GLADSTONE died at Hawarden 
Jl^ Castle, at 5 o'clock, Thursday 
^^V ^^ Morning, May 19, 1898. 

The first intimation of the rap- 
idly approaching end of Mr. Glad- 
stone was conveyed in a bulletin issued at 9 
o'clock Tuesday morning. May 17. It read 
" Mr. Gladstone had a poor and broken sleep 
last night; he is somewhat exhausted, but suf- 
fers no discomfort." The report of the evening 
before was assuring as to any sudden change, so 
that the anxiety was increased. For hours no 
additional information was given, but there were 
indications outside the Castle of a crisis. Through- 
out the day could be heard expressions of deep 
regret among the working people, asking, " How 
is the old gentleman ? " Despite the heavy rain 

573 



574 William E. Gladstone. 

the people collected in groups, and the hush and 
quiet that prevailed indicated the presence of 
death. 

A bulletin at 5 p. m. said : " Mr. Gladstone 
has taken a serious turn for the worse. His 
death may be expected in twenty-four hours." 
All day the condition of the patient had been 
critical. The doctor doubted that his patient 
was fully conscious at any time, he answered, 
^'Yes," and '^ No." He refused all medicine, ex- 
claiming No ! No ! It was remarked that when 
addressed in English, Mr. Gladstone would an- 
swer in French, and sometimes was praying in 
French. 

Later in the evening the servants of the 
household were admitted to the sick room for a 
final farewell. They found Mr. Gladstone lying 
in a deep sleep; each in turn knelt down, kissed 
his hand and tearfully withdrew. 

About 9 o'clock the patient rallied a little 
and fell into a peaceful sleep, which was thought 
to be his last. 

The rain had continued to fall during the 
night, but the villagers had been coming singly 
and in groups to glance silently at the rain- 
beaten scrap of paper which was the latest bulle- 
tin, and then silently returning to the gate, and 
disappearing in the darkness only to return 
later. 



Closing Scenes; §7§ 

About 4 o'clock in the morning Mr. Glad- 
stone seemed to be sinking* Tbe scene in the 
sick-room was painful. The Rev. Stephen Glad- 
stone read prayers and hymns, including Mr. 
Gladstone's favorite, '' Rock of Ages." When 
this was concluded, Mr. Gladstone murmured, 
" Our Father." As Mrs. Gladstone leaned over 
her husband, he turned his head and his lips 
moved slightly. Though extremly distressed, 
Mrs. Gladstone bore up with remarkable forti- 
tude. But Mr. Gladstone rallied again, and 
Wednesday morning he was still living. By his 
almost superhuman vitality he had fought death 
away. 

The morning was beautiful and clear and 
the sunshine came in at the open window of Mr. 
Gladstone's room. The aged sufferer was hover- 
ing between life and death, and only by the fee- 
ble beating of his pulse could it be told he was 
alive. He was sleeping himself away into eter- 
nal day. Mrs. Gladstone sat by the side of his 
bed, holding his hand, and never leaving except 
for needed rest. At times he seemed to recog- 
nize for a moment some of those with him. He 
surely knew his wife as she tenderly kissed his 
hand. 

It soon became known abroad that Mr. Glad- 
stone was dying. In the House of Commons it 
caused profound sorrow. Everything else was 
stopped while members discussed how best to 



576 William E. Gladstone 

honor Him, even by taking steps witliont, prece- 
dent as that of adjonming, becanse the circum- 
stances were unprecedented. His former col- 
leagues silently watched his last struggle with 
the relentless foe, to whom, true to himself, he 
was yielding slowly, inch by inch. 

Telegrams of inquiry and sympathy came 
from all parts of the world to the Castle. The 
Queen wrote making inquiries and tendering 
assurances of profound sympathy. A long tele- 
gram from the Princess of Wales concluded : " I 
am praying for you." The Prince of Wales wrote: 
" My thoughts are with you at this trying time. 
God grant that your father does not suffer." The 
Duke of Devonshire before the British Empire 
League referred touchingly to the mournful 
scenes at Hawarden, when " the greatest of Eng- 
lishmen was slowly passing away." And all 
over the land people of all conditions and at all 
kinds of gatherings, politicians, divines, reform- 
ers, and women joined in expressions of grief 
and sympathy. Many were the messages of re- 
gard and condolence that came from other lands. 

Dr. Dobie furnishes the following picture of 
the dying man. " His grand face bears a most 
peaceful and beautiful look. A few days ago the 
deeply bitten wrinkles that so long marked it 
were almost gone ; but now, strangely enough, 
they seem strong and deep as ever. He looks 
too in wonderfully good color." 



Closing Scenes 577 

At 2 o^clock in the morning, it was evident 
that the time had come, and the family gathered 
about the bed of the aged man, from that time 
none of them left the room until all was over. 
The only absentee was little Dorothy Drew, who 
tearfully complained that her grandfather did 
not know her. Behind the family circle stood 
the physicians and the nurses, and the old coach- 
man, who had been unable to be present when 
the other servants took their farewell, and who 
was now sent for to witness the closing scene. 

The end was most peaceful. There were no 
signs of bodily pain or of mental distress. The 
Rev. Stephen Gladstone read prayers and' re- 
peated hymns. The nurse continued to bathe 
with spirits the brow of the patient, who showed 
gratitude by murmuring, '' How nice ! " While 
the son was engaged in praying, came the gentle, 
almost perceptible cessation of life, and the great 
man was no more. So quietly had he breathed 
his last, that the family did not know it until it 
was announced by the medical attendants. The 
weeping family then filed slowly from the room, 
Mrs. Gladstone was led into another room and 
induced to lie down. The only spoken evidence 
that Mr. Gladstone realized his surroundings in 
his last moments was when his son recited the 
litany. Then the dying man murmured, "Amen.'^ 
This was the last word spoken by Mr. Gladstone 
and was uttered j ust before he died. 



578 WILLIAM E. Gladstone 

The death of Mr. Gladstone was announced 
to the people of Hawarden by the tolling of the 
church bell. The following bulletin was posted 
at 6 a. m.: ^^ In the natural course of things the 
funeral will be at Hawarden. Mr. Gladstone ex- 
pressed a strong wish to have no flowers at his 
funeral ; and the family will be grateful if this 
desire is strictly respected." 

There was something indescribably pathetic 
in the daily bulletins about Mr. Gladstone. All 
the world knew that he was afflicted with a fatal 
but slow disease, and all the world was struck 
with wondering admiration at his sustained forti- 
tude, patience, and resignation. The tragedy of 
a life, devoted simply and purely to the public 
service, drawing to an end in so long an agony, 
was a spectacle that struck home to the heart of 
the most callous. These bulletins were posted on 
the front door of the Jubilee Porch, at Hawarden 
Castle, at 9 a. m., 5 p. m. and 10 o'clock at night 
daily, and published throughout the world. 

When the sad event was announced that 
Mr. Gladstone had passed away, the action of the 
House of Commons was prompt, decided and 
sympathetic. The House was crowded Thurs- 
day, May 19, when Speaker Gully called upoi^ 
the government leader, Mr. A. J. Balfour, the 
First Lord of the Treasury, and all the members 
uncovering their heads, Mr. Balfour said : 



Closing Scenes. 579 

" I think it will be felt in all parts of the 
House that we should do fitting honor to the 
great man whose long and splendid career closed 
to-day, by adjourning. 

^^ This is not the occasion for uttering the 
thoughts which naturally suggest themselves. 
That occasion will present itself to-morrow, when 
it will be my duty to submit to the House an ad- 
dress to the Queen, praying her to grant the 
honor of a public funeral, if such honor is not 
inconsistent with the expressed wishes of himself 
or of those who have the right to speak in his 
behalf, and also praying the Queen to direct that 
a public monument be erected at Westminster 
with an inscription expressive of the public ad- 
miration, attachment and high estimate enter- 
tained by the House of Mr. Gladstone's rare and 
splendid gifts and devoted labors in Parliament 
and in high offices of State. 

^^ Before actually moving the adjournment, 
I have to propose a formal resolution that the 
House to-morrow resolve itself into committee to 
darw up an address, the contents of which I have 
just indicated." 

After a word of assent from Sir William 
Vernon-Harcourt, the Liberal leader, the resolu- 
tipn was adopted and the House adjourned. 

The House of Commons was crowded again 
on Friday, and went into committee of the 
whole to consider the address to the Queen in 



58o William E. Gladstone 

regard to the interment of the remains of Mr. 
Gladstone in Westminster Abbey. Not since 
the introduction of the Home Rule Bill by Mr. 
Gladstone had there been such an assemblage in 
the House, members filled every seat, clustered 
on the steps of the speaker's dais, and occupied 
every space. The galleries were all filled. In 
the Peer's gallery were the foremost members of 
the House of Lords. United States Ambassador 
Hay and all his staff were present with other 
Ambassadors. The members of the House were 
in deep mourning, and all removed their hats, 
as if in the presence of the dead. An unusual 
hush overspread all. After the prayer by the 
chaplain, there was an impressive silence for a 
quarter of an hour, before Mr. Balfour rose to 
speak. The whole scene was profoundly affect- 
ing. The eulogies of Mr. Gladstone formed an 
historic episode. All, without respect to party, 
united in honoring their late illustrious coun- 
tryman. 

Mr. Balfour delivered a brilliant panegyric 
of the dead statesman, and his speech was elo- 
quent and displayed great taste. He was so ill, 
however, from weakness of heart that he was 
barely able to totter to his place and to ask the 
indulgence of the speaker while he rested, before 
offering his oration. He was too sick for the sad 
duty imposed upon him, but he preferred to pay 
this last tribute to his friend. The circumstances 



Mil 



Closing Scenes 583 

were painful, but added a dramatic toucli to 
the scene. His oration was lengthy and his 
eulogy spoken with evident emotion. He con- 
cluded by formally moving the presentation of 
the address to the Queen. The Liberal Leader, 
Sir William Vernon-Harcourt, the political as 
well as the personal friend of Mr. Gladstone, 
seconded the motion. He paid a heartfelt tri- 
bute to the memory of his eminent colleague, and 
spoke in a vein of lofty and glowing eloquence 
until overcome with emotion, so that he had to 
stop thrice to wipe his eyes ; finally he com- 
pletely broke down and was unable to pro- 
ceed. 

Mr. Dillon, the Irish leader, in a speech of 
five minutes duration, and in his most oratori- 
cal style, dwelt on Mr. Gladstone's fervid sym- 
pathy for the oppressed people of all races, and 
touched a chord which stirred the House. As 
Mr. Dillon had spoken for Ireland, so Mr. Abel 
Thomas followed as the representative of 
Wales. 

The address to the Queen was unanimously 
adopted. 

In the House of Lords there was also a full 
attendance of members. The Marquis of Salis- 
bury, Prime Minister, spoke feelingly of Mr. 
Gladstone, who, he said, " was ever guided in all 
his efforts by a lofty moral idea". The deceased 
will be remembered, not so much for his political 



584 William E. Gladstone 

work as for the great example, hardly paralleled 
in history, of the great Christian Statesman." 

The Earl of Kimberly, the liberal leader in 
the House of Lords, followed in a touching 
tribute, and the Duke of Devonshire expressed 
generous appreciation of Mr. Gladstone's ser- 
vices in behalf of the Liberal Unionists, saying 
their severance from Mr. Gladstone was a most 
painful incident. But, he added, he could ^' re- 
call no word from Mr. Gladstone which added 
unnecessarily to the bitterness of the situation." 
The Earl of Rosebery delivered an eloquent 
panegyric. The honors of the occasion were 
unanimously accorded to him, whose eulogy of 
his predecessor in the leadership of the liberal 
party was a masterpiece of its kind. He spoke 
of the triumphs of life rather than the sorrows of 
death. Death was not all sadness. His life was 
full — his memory remains. To all time he is 
an example for our race and mankind. He in- 
stanced as an illustration of the fine courtesy 
always observed by Mr. Gladstone towards his 
political opponents, that the last letter he had 
written with his own hand was a private note to 
Lady Salisbury, several weeks since, congratu- 
lating her and her husband on their providential 
escape from a carriage accident at Hatfield. Lord 
Salisbury was visibly touched by Lord Rose- 
bery's reference to this circumstance. 



Closing Scenes 585 

The House of Lords tHen adopted the Reso- 
lution to the Queen. 

The body of Mr. Gladstone, un-coffined, was 
laid on a couch in the Library of the Castle — 
the room called the Temple of Peace. He was 
dressed in a suit of black cloth, over which were 
the scarlet robes of the university, and by his 
side the cap was placed. His hands were folded 
on his breast. He rested on a most beautiful 
white satin cloth, with a rich border in Eastern 
embroidery. Above his head in letters of gold 
were the words sewn into the satin : '^Requiescat 
in pace." There was the beauty of death — the 
terror was all gone. During Tuesday the body 
was viewed by the tenants on the estate, the 
neighbors and friends. 

On Wednesday morning. May 25th, at 6 
o^clock, the remains, having been enclosed in a 
plain panelled elm coffin, were removed to the 
village church, where they were lying in state 
during the day. The body was carried by half- 
a-dozen old retainers of the family to a bier on 
wheels, on which it was taken to the church, 
over the lawn, following the private path Mr. 
Gladstone used to tread on his way to church, 
and past the favorite nooks of the deceased in 
the park. The family — excepting Mrs. Glad- 
stone, who came later, tenants, servants, friends, 
local officials and neighbors followed in pro- 
cession. Thousands of people were arriving by 



586 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE. 

public and private conveyances at Hawarden. 
At eleven o'clock the doors of the church were 
opened, when men, women and children, from all 
the surrounding country, and even tourists from 
abroad, entered to view the remains. All day 
long a constant stream of people poured into the 
church, while the streets were filled with people 
unable to gain admittance. Several ladies 
fainted from excess of emotion when passing the 
bier, and many men and women dropped on 
their knees and silently prayed. 

At 6 o'clock in the evening the body was 
removed from Hawarden Church and carried to 
the station for the journey to London. The pro- 
cession to bear the remains was composed of the 
family, representatives of organizations, friends 
and neighbors. Vast crowds lined the route, 
afoot and in every kind of vehicle. The cortege 
stopped at the entrance to the Park — Hawarden 
Lodge, and sang one of Mr. Gladstone's favorite 
hymns. Again, when the procession reached 
the Castle, it paused at the entrance and sang 
another hymn loved by the late resident of the 
house, and went on its way to Broughton Hall 
Station. Every step of the way, after leaving 
the park, was again lined with sympathetic spec- 
tators. While at the station the spectacle was 
remarkable for the surrounding crush of human 
beings. A special train was provided for the body 
and the family. As the body of Mr. Gladstone 




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Closing Scenes 589 

was placed upon tlie funeral car the sorrow of the 
people was manifest. The representatives of the 
Earl Marshall, of England, took possession of 
the funeral at this point. Henry and Herbert 
Gladstone accompanied the body to London and 
Mrs. Gladstone and family returned to the castle 
to follow later. 

All along the route to London grief-stricken 
people were standing to view the funeral train as 
it passed at Chester, Crewe, Rugby, Stafford and 
Fam worth until the darkness and lateness of the 
night shut out the scene. 

When the train reached London and passed 
to Westminster, it was early in the morning. A 
group of some thirty gentlemen, connected with 
the ceremonies, was at the station ; among them 
the Duke of Norfolk, About two hundred peo- 
ple looked silently on while the body was re- 
moved from the train to the hearse, and the 
funeral cortege moved on to Westminster Hall 
at once and entered the Palace Yard just as ^^Big 
Ben " tolled the hour of one like a funeral knell. 

The coffin was placed in position for lying 
in state in Westminster IJall, and at about 3 
o'clock Canon Wilberforce conducted a special 
service in the presence of Henry and Herbert 
Gladstone and several members of the House of 
Commons. 

The scenes that followed were remarkably 
mpressiye and unparalleled. The people began 



590 William e. Gladstone 

to arrive at Westminster at 2. o'clock in tHe 
morning. The line formed was continually aug- 
mented by all classes of people, — peers, peer- 
esses, cabinet members, members of tbe House 
of Commons, military and naval officers, clergy- 
men, coster mongers, old and young, until 6 
o'clock, wben the doors were opened and the pro- 
cession commenced to stream into the Hall, and 
passed the catafalque. 

This long procession of mourners continued 
all day Thursday and Friday. Two hundred 
thousand people, at least, paid homage to the 
dead statesman. On Friday evening, after the 
crowd had departed, large delegations, represent- 
ing Liberal organizations from all parts of the 
kingdom, visited the Hall, by special arrange- 
ment, and fifteen hundred of them paid respect 
to the memory of their late leader. 

Saturday morning. May 28, thousands of 
people assembled in the square outside to wit- 
ness the passage of the funeral cortege from 
Westminster Hall, where it was formed, to the 
Abbey, to find sepulchre in the tomb of kings. 
The procession passed through two lines of 
policemen. It was not a military parade, with 
-all its pomp, but a ceremony made glorious by 
the homage of the people, among them the great- 
est of the nation. The funeral was in every re- 
spect impressive, dignified and lofty, in every 
way worthy the great civilian, and the natipn 



Closing Scenes. 591 

that accorded him a public burial with its great- 
est dead. And the people were there. Every 
spot on which the eye rested swarmed with 
human beings. They looked from the windows 
of the hospital, and from the roofs of houses. 
Everybody was dressed in black. 

The principal officials had assembled in 
Westminster Hall at 10 o'clock. The Bishop 
of London, the Right Rev. Mandell Creighton, 
D. D., read a brief prayer and at 10.30 o'clock 
the procession had formed and slowly passed 
through the crowds who with uncovered heads 
stood on either side of short pathway, a distance 
300 yards, to the western entrance of the Abbey, 
between two ranks of the Eton Volunteers, the 
boys of the school where Mr. Gladstone received 
his early education, in their buff uniforms. 

The pall-bearers who walked on each side 
of the coffin were perhaps the personages who 
attracted the most attention during the day. 
They were the Prince of Wales, the Duke of 
York, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of 
Kimberly, A. J. Balfour, Sir William Vernon- 
Harcourt, the Duke of Rutland, Lord Rosebery, 
Baron Rendel and George Armitstead, the two 
latter being life-long friends of the deceased 
statesman. 

When Mrs. Gladstone entered the Abbey 
the whole assembly rose and remained standing 
until she was seated. This honor was accorded 



592 William E. Gladstone 

only once beside — when the Princess of Wales, 
the Princess Mary and the Dnchess of York 
appeared. 

The Abbey was filled with people. Every 
gallery, balcony and niche high up among the 
rafters held a cluster of deeply interested specta- 
tors. Temporary galleries had been erected in 
long tiers around the open grave, which was in 
the floor of the Abbey. There were 2,500 per- 
sons assembled in the Abbey, all — both men and 
women — clothed in black, except a few officials 
whose regalia relieved this sombre background 
by its brilliancy. The two Houses of Parlia- 
ment sat facing each other, seated on temporary 
seats on opposite sides of the grave. About 
them were the mayors of the principal cities, 
delegates from Liberal organizations, representa- 
tives of other civic and political societies, repre- 
sentatives of the Non-Conformists, while the long 
nave was crowded with thousands of men and 
women, among them being most of the celebrities 
in all 'branches of English life. In each gallery 
was a presiding officer with his official mace be- 
side him, whose place was in the centre, and who 
was its most prominent figure. It was a distin- 
guished assembly in a famous place. Beneath 
were the illustrious dead ; around were the illus- 
trious living. 

The members of the bereaved family sat in 
the stall nearest the bier — Mrs. Gladstone^ her 



Closing Scenes 593 

sons Henry, Herbert and Stephen ; with other 
members of the family, children and grand-chil- 
dren, including little Dorothy Drew, Mr. Glad- 
stone's favorite grand-child, in her new mourning. 

The Princess of Wales and the Duchess of 
York occupied the Dean's pew opposite. Other 
royalties were present in person or by their rep- 
resentatives. 

Within the chancel stood the Dean of West- 
minster, and behind him were gathered the cathe- 
dral clergy, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
the scarlet and white surpliced choir, filling the 
chapel. 

It was the wish of the deceased for simplic- 
ity, but he was buried with a nation's homage in 
the tomb of kings. In the northern transept, 
known as the ^' Statesmen's Corner ", of West- 
minster Abbey, where Englands's greatest dead 
rests, the body of Mr. Gladstone was entombed. 
His grave is near the graves of Pitt, Palmerston, 
Canning and Peel, beside that of his life-long 
political adversary. Lord Beaconsfield (Benjamin 
Disraeli), whose marble e£&gy looks down upon 
it, decked with the regalia Mr. Gladstone had so 
often refused. Two possible future kings of 
Great Britain walked besides the great common- 
er s coffin and stood beside his grave, and all the 
nobility and learning of the nation surrounded 
his bier. This state funeral, the first since that 
of Lord Palmerston, was rendered more imposing 



594 William E. Gladstone 

by tlie magnificence of the edifice in wliich it 
was solemnized. The coffin rested on an elevated 
bier before the altar, its plainness hidden beneath 
a pall of white and gold embroidered cloth. 

A choir of one hnndred male singers, which 
had awaited the coffin at the entrance to the 
Abbey, preceded it along the nave, chanting, '' I 
am the Resurrection and the Life.'^ When the 
coffin was laid on the bier, PurcelFs funeral 
chant, "Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge," 
was sung, and Dean Bradley and the whole 
assemblage sang, " Rock of Ages," and then 
while the coffin was being borne along the aisle 
to the grave, sang Mr. Gladstone's favorite 
hymn, " Praise to the Holiest in the Height." 

The choir of Westminster Abbey is said to 
be fine at any time, but for this great occasion 
special arrangements had been made, and there 
was a recruiting of the best voices from several 
of the choirs of London, and many musical 
instruments beside. The result was to win gen- 
eral praise for the beauty, harmony and perfec- 
tion of the music. The weird, dismal strains of 
a quartette of trombones, in a recess far above 
the heads of the congregation, playing the three 
splendid " Equali," Beethoven's funeral hymn, 
swept through the vaulted roof of the Abbey, in 
pure tones never to be forgotten. When these 
ceased and finally died away, the great organ and 
a band of brass instruments took up Schubert's 



Closing Scenes. 595 

funeral marcli, booming sonorously ; and changed 
to Beethoven's funeral marcli with a clash of 
cymbals in the orchestral accompaniment. A 
third march being required, owing to the time 
needed by the procession to reach the Abbey, 
^^ Marche Solennelle" was played. 

The choir, and a large number of bishops 
and other clergy, joined the procession at the 
west door and together they all proceeded to the 
grave. 

There was no sermon. The service was 
simple and solemn. The final psean of victory 
over death and the grave from Paul's great 
epistle was read, and the last hymn sung was, 
'' Oh God ! Our Help in Ages Past." The dean 
read the appointed appropriate service, commit- 
ting the body to the earth, and then the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, in a loud voice, pronounced 
the benediction. The family and others near 
the grave kneeled during the concluding cere- 
monies, and then Mrs. Gladstone was helped 
from her knees to her unoccupied chair at the 
head of the grave. 

After the benediction came one of the saddest 
moments of the day. Mrs. Gladstone stood, 
with great courage and composure, throughout 
the service, supported on the arms of her two 
sons, Herbert and Stephen, and with other mem- 
bers of her family near the grave. Her face was 
lifted upward, and her lips were moving as 



596 William E. Gladstone. 

« 

though repeating the lines of the service. She 
also kept standing during the one official feature 
of the service ; '' The Proclamation by Garter, by 
Norroy, King of Arms, of the Style of the De- 
ceased," as the official programme had it, and in 
which the various offices which Mr. Gladstone 
had held in his lifetime, were enumerated. Then, 
when the final word was spoken, the widow, still 
supported by her sons, approached the edge of 
the grave and there took a last, long look and 
was conducted away. Other relatives followed, 
and then most of the members of Parliament. 
Finally the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York 
and other pall-bearers defiled past the grave, took 
a last view of the coffin in the deep grave, and 
when they had been escorted down the nave to 
entrance, the people slowly departed. 

The '' Dead March " from " Saul " and the 
" Marche Solennelle " of Schubert was played as 
the congregation slowly wended its way out of 
the sacred edifice. 

Perhaps the most solemn function of all, 
witnessed by none but the Gladstone family and 
the officials, was when the casket was opened 
shortly after midnight on Thursday to allow the 
. Earl Marshal to verify with his own eyes that it 
really contained the remains of the dead states- 
man. It was said that the old man^s face, seen 
for the last time by the Duke of Norfolk, who is 
responsible to England for his sacred charge, 



Closing Scenes 599 

was more peaceful and younger looking than it 
had seemed for years. At the very last moment 
a small gold Armenian cross, a memento of that 
nation for which the great statesman worked so 
zealously, was placed by his side. Then all was 
sealed. 

As the deceased statesman was undoubtedly 
the greatest parliamentarian of our time, the fol- 
lowing concise expressions with regard to his 
character and influence have been collected from 
a number of representative members of different 
political parties in both Houses of Parliament : 

The Marquis of Londonderry said : " What impressed me about 
Mr. Gladstone was his extraordinary moral influence." 

Lord George Hamilton : "I doubt whether we ever had a par- 
liamentarian who equalled Mr. Gladstone." 

The Marquis of Lome : "I share the universal regret at Mr. 
Gladstone's death as a personal loss." 

Sir John Gorst : ' ' One feature, which greatly distinguished Mr. 
Gladstone, was his remarkable candour in debate. He never affected 
to misunderstand his opponents' arguments, and spared no pains in 
trying to make his own meaning understood.'' 

Sir Charles Dilke : "I think Mr. Gladstone's leading personal 
characteristic was his old-fashioned courtesy. Whilst a statesman, 
his absolute mastery of finance, both in its principles and details, was 
incomparably superior to that of any of his contemporaries." 

Mr. Thomas Ellis, the chief Liberal Whip, confessed that the 
greatest interest of his life in Parliament was to watch Mr. Glad- 
stone's face. " It was like the sea in the fascination of its infinite 
variety, and of its incalculable reserve and strength. Every motion 
in his great soul was reflected in his face and form. To have had op- 
portunities of watching that face, and of witnessing one triumph after 
another, is a precious privilege, for some of the charms of his face, as 
of his oratory and character, were incommunicable. He more than 
any man helped to build up and shape the present commercial and 



6oo WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

political fabric of Britain, but to struggling nations his words and 
deeds were as the breath of life." 

Sir Joseph Pease : ** His memory will be kept green by a grate- 
ful country. Death soon buries the battle-axe of party, and he who 
devoted a long life and immense intellectual power, coupled with 
strong convictions on moral and Christian ethics, to the well being of 
his country and the world, will never be forgotten by the English 
people." 

Mr. James Bryce, author of ''The American Commonwealth'': 
' ' This sad event is the most noble and pathetic closing of a great life 
which we have seen in England in historical memory. I cannot recall 
any other case in which the whole nation has followed the setting of the 
sun of life with such sympathy, such regret, and such admiration." 

Lord Kinnaird : *' Few men in public life have been able to 
draw out such personal love and devotion from his followers and 
friends. In the midst of an ever-busy life he was always ready to 
take his part in the conflict of right against wrong, of truth against 
error, and he earned the gratitude of all patriots, for he was never 
ashamed of contending that no true progress could be made which left 
out of sight the moral well-being of the people." 

Mr. Labouchere : " What impressed me most in Mr. Gladstone 
was his power of concentrated effort. Once he had decided on a 
course, action at once followed. Every thought was bent to attain 
the end, no labour was deemed to arduous. He alone knew how to 
deal with supporters and opponents. The former he inspired with his 
own fierce energy." 

Mr. John Redmond, leader of the Parnellite group of the Irish 
Nationalists : " The loss to England is absolutely incalculable. I 
regard Mr. Gladstone as having been the greatest parliamentarian of 
the age, and the greatest parliamentary orator. Englishmen of all 
parties ought to be grateful to him for his services in promoting the 
greatness and prosperity of their empire. 

John Dillon : ' ' The greatest and most patriotic of Englishmen. 
If I were asked to say what I think most characteristic of Gladstone, I 
should say his abiding love for the common people and his faith in the 
government founded upon them, so that, while he remained the most 
patiiotic of Englishmen, he is to-day mourned wtth equal intensity 
throughout the civilized world." 

Justin McCarthy, M. P.: " The death of Mr. Gladstone closes a 
career which may be described as absolutely unique in English politi- 



Closing Scenes 6oi 

cal history. It was the career of a great statesman, whose statesman- 
ship was first and last inspired, informed and guided by conscience, 
by principle, and by love of justice. There were great English states- 
men before Mr. Gladstone's time and during Mr. Gladstone's time, 
but we shall look in vain for an example of any statesman in 
office, who made genius and eloquence, as Mr. Gladstone did, the 
mere servants of righteousness and conscientious purpose. Into 
the mind of Gladstone no thought of personal ambition or personal 
advancement ever entered. He was as conscientious as Burke. In 
the brilliancy of his gifts he was at least the equal of Bolingbroke. 
He was as great an orator as either Pitt, and he has left the imprint 
of his intellect on beneficent political and social legislation. In elo- 
quence he far surpassed Cobden and was the peer of Bright, while his 
position as Parliamentary leader enabled him to initiate and carry 
out measures of reform which Bright and Cobden could only support. 
He was, in short, the greatest and the best Prime Minister known to 
English history." 

Michael Davitt : "One can only join with the whole world in 
admiration of the almost boundless talents of Mr. Gladstone, which 
were devoted with unparalleled power of charm to the service of his 
fellow-men. He was probably the greatest British statesman and 
leaves behind a record of a career unequalled in the annals of 
English politics. For the magnitude of his national labors and integ- 
rity of his personal character, Irishmen will remember him gratefully. 

The Daily Chronicle heads its editorial with a quotation from 
Wordsworth : 

" This is the happy warrior : this is he : 
That every man in arms should wish to be." 

The editorial says : *' A glorious light has been extinguished in 
the land ; all his life lies in the past, a memory to us and our children; 
an inspiration and possession forever. The end has come as to a 
soldier at his post. It found him calm, expectant, faithful, unshaken. 
Death has come robed in the terrors of mortal pain ; but what better 
can be said than that as he taught his fellows how to live, so he has 
taught them how to die ? 

'*It is impossible at this hour to survey the mighty range of this 
splendid life. We would assign to him the title. ' The Great Nation- 
alist of the Nineteenth Century ; ' the greatest of the master-builders 
cf modern England. Timidity had no place in Mr. Gladstone's soul. 
Ho was a lion among men, endowed with a granite strength of will 
and purpose, rare indeed in our age of feeble convictions.'' 



602 WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE 

The Daily News says : ' ' One of his most characteristics quali- 
ties was his personal humility. This cannot be explained without 
the key, for Mr. Gladstone did not in the ordinary meaning of the 
word, underrate himself. He was not easy to persuade. He paid 
little attention to other people's opinions when his mind was made up. 
He was quite aware of his own ascendency in counsel and his suprem- 
acy in debate. The secret of his humility was an abiding sense that 
these things were of no importance compared with the relations be- 
tween God's creatures and their Creator, Mr. Gladstone once said 
with characteristic candour that he had a vulnerable temper. He was 
quickly moved to indignation by whatever he thought injurious 
either to himself or to others, and was incapable of concealing his emo- 
tions, for, if he said nothing, his countenance showed what he felt. 
More expressive features were never given to man. 

** Mr. Gladstone's exquisite courtesy, which in and out of Parlia- 
ment was the model for all, proceeded from the same source. It was 
essentially Christian. Moreover, nobody laughed more heartily over 
an anecdote that was really good. He was many men in one ; but he 
impressed all alike with the essential greatness of his character. 

" He was built mentally and morally on a large scale. Of course 
it cannot be denied that such a face, such a voice, such natural 
dignity, and such perfect gesture produced in themselves an immense 
effect. There was nothing common-place about him. Mr' Gladstone 
was absolutely simple ; and his simplicity was not the least attractive 
element of his fascinating personality. 

" His life presented aspects of charm to all minds. His learning 
captivated the scholar, his eloquence and statesmanship the politician, 
his financial genius the business man ; while his domestic relations 
and simple human graciousness appealed to all hearts. 

' ' ' There is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel. ' ' ' 

Public Ledger^ Philadelphia : " To write Gladstone's career is to 
write the history of the Victorian era and that of the closing years of 
the reign of William IV, for Gladstone took his seat in Parliament 
for the first time in 1832, two years after he was out of college, and 
Victoria's accession took place in 1837. Since that remote day Glad- 
stone has been four times Premier ; has delivered numberless speeches 
of the highest order of excellence; has published a multitude of pamph- 
lets and volumes which attest consummate intellectual gifts, and has 
been a great force in English statesmanship and scholarship through 
an exceptionally long life and almost to the very close of it. It has 
been given to exceedingly few men to play so great, so transcendent a 
role in any country or at any time." 



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